Batcrazy smashed Alke into the wall, followed by Kevin releasing a bolt towards the Tetramand. She growled as the bolt struck her before forcing the Stonebreak Batcracker back. The massive, stone covered bat-like surged back before placing his wing claws on the ground and screeching at her. Alke stared down Batcrazy and Kevin before Batcrazy bolted, getting into the air and flying in an arch around her. She focused on Kevin when she noticed electricity pouring out of his palms.
Alke moved her hands behind herself as Batcrazy flew and Kevin released a wave of electricity. She clapped all four hands together, a burst of sonic waves forcing the electricity to scatter. Batcrazy landed and stood on his hind legs, forcing his ears down as the sonic burst crashed into him. He felt Kevin grip onto his body as the burst rang around him.
Beeping from both devices, causing all three to relax. Kevin dropped off Batcrazy before a flash consumed the bat-like and Alke, transforming them back to normal. EightEight came into the room.
"Good work," EightEight gurgled and signed. Ben and Gwen nodded in reply, Kevin staring blankly.
The door opened, causing them to look over. Allie looked at them before saying, "I hope I'm not disturbing anything, but Thornapple is calling a meeting."
EightEight tilted her head before starting towards the door. Allie slipped away as the Wyrmlings followed, glancing at each other.
They came to an area where many, many other creatures gathered with Thornapple perched on a lamppost and held up by his back vines. General chatter seemed to fall when Thornapple lifted himself higher.
"I'm sure all of you are wondering why I have called this meeting," Thornapple started, getting an odd chatter of agreements. The Spring Florauna continued, "Earlier, Dragua warned me of a group of anti-alien humans called the Forever Knights marching towards Sparksville." A silence consumed the area. "Dragua assumed that thanks to those Galactic Enforcers stopping near the town with their extremely obvious ship, the Forever Knights would come here to take us out. We need to do something to make sure this doesn't get the attention of the legal government, but also make sure these Forever Knights don't come back.
"If you do not wish to involve yourself in pushing back the Forever Knights, I don't blame you. Those who wish to help stay here. If you do not, I simply request that you do not go to the surface until the Forever Knights have been taken care off. There will be five minutes to decide," Thornapple continued. He then lowered himself, parts of the group starting to leave.
EightEight looked at the Wyrmlings before signing and gurgling, "Thoughts?"
"On… the situation?" Gwen questioned. The Sotoraggian nodded.
"Can we help?" Ben asked.
"I'm not stopping you," EightEight replied, making sure to sign the same thing.
Ben looked at Gwen and Kevin before asking, "What about you two?"
"I'm helping," Gwen nodded. The watch wielders stared at Kevin.
The maybe-human looked at the two before commenting, "You two are kinda freaky when you both decide to stare at someone." They continued to stare with EightEight tilting her head at the action. "I'll help."
"Guess we're staying here, then," EightEight muttered, looking back at Thornapple.
-(...)-
Enoch stopped his horse and looked at his troops. Well, troops was a very loose term, there were only twelve of them. Himself, his second in command Driscoll, his intelligence gatherer Dagonet, that robot Patrick convinced him to take, and eight other random knights. Dagonet looked towards the village Patrick requested them to look into, humming and tapping a pencil on his chin.
All of their armor was basically the same, a set of knight armor with a trench coat worked into it and a detective hat with the Forever Knight's coat of arms on it. The eight troops wore a full face mask to cover their faces while Dagonet settled for just glasses, Driscoll for a mask that covered just his mouth, and Enoch with a mask that somewhat resembled an ox. The robot was the odd one out, with pure red armor and a vibe that was extremely alien.
Dagonet took out a spyglass, activated it, then looked towards the city once more. Enoch looked over and asked, "Anything of note?"
"There's some residents standing near the closest entrance. They seem to be aware we were coming, but not when," Dagonet said in an Australian accent, not bothering to look at him.
Enoch hummed in reply, mindlessly petting his horse to keep it calm. The robot was crouched next to Dagonet, unseen eyes staring towards the town. Driscoll was content with staying with the other eight troops, who were talking in Irish about… something.
Dagonet clicked his tongue before commenting, "Strange… They seem to be waiting for us. I don't know why, but… hm… Those are some strange devices…"
Enoch raised a brow, focusing on Dagonet. "Do tell," Enoch commanded.
"The smallest two have these weird watches that look more like hidden weapons. The rest of them have more obvious weapons, though I couldn't tell you what for. At a glance, the few near the smallest two have more gun shaped weapons while the others have weapons that seem more like spears or swords," Dagonet provided, lowering the spyglass and getting out a notebook. "Hm… It seems like they're heading towards us…"
"Record what happens," Enoch stated. Dagonet nodded, wagging the pencil he held a bit. Enoch looked back at the other nine. "Men, are you ready?"
The knights snapped towards him and echoed, "We are ready, sir." The robot stood to its full height. Enoch looked back to the village as got his horse moving.
-()-
Thornapple's plan was simple when you didn't have to deal with the implications that two major pieces of the plan were children. They decided that the watch wielders would turn into Styx and Dracula respectively, then use intimidation tactics to make them back off. If intimidation failed, they had weapons.
EightEight stayed near Ben and Gwen as the group approached where the knights were gathered. Kevin was near some others, staying behind one of the larger creatures. All of them had their masks on, of course, wouldn't want to reveal to an alien hating group that you're aliens.
As they approached, the knights began to move towards them. Thornapple stopped before making a brief nod. The Omnitrix and Predatrix wielders activated their watches and came to their selected transformation. The knights stalled slightly, seeming staring at the lights from the watches. A few moments of tense silence followed before they pressed down.
Dracula screeched a horrid screech as the light vanished, Styx following that with a haunting laugh. The knights froze as Styx flew around them and Dracula grinned and stepped closer. Magenta eyes and a single purple one stared down the knights. A few of them began to bail, but most of them stayed. The one which seemed mostly robotic surged forwards towards the vampire-like.
Dracula smiled and spat at its forehead. A rocky bat formation slapped against the robot before Dracula commanded, "Stop." The robot came to a sudden stop, shaking slightly. The vampire-like smiled as the knight with just the mouth guard backed up. "Revolt," Dracula commanded. The robot turned and surged back, whipping out a sword. The majority of the other knights bailed as the mouth guard one whipped out a sword and blocked the robot's attack.
The horse riding one growled before yelling to the other in some other language. The mouth guard one wiped the sword, pushing the robot back, before running off to join the others. The horse riding followed, causing Dracula to command, "Stop." The robot stuttered to a stop.
"That was quick," Dungbeetle commented.
"Cool, the plan worked," Waterbuck commented as Afri came up to the robot. She went to its neck and clicked something on it, causing the robot to sag but still stay upright.
"What did you do, Afri-mask?" Pigeon asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Turned off the dang thing. No clue how they got their hands on Sotoraggian tech, but I'm not complaining now that it's not with them," Afri replied, searching the robot's body. She pressed something on it, causing it to retract into a cube and for the little bat thing to fall. She picked it up before looking at the others.
"Cool," Pigeon nodded.
Dracula looked over to the Ectonurite before staring and tilting his head. Styx stared back with the single purple eye, with it sometimes flickering to magenta briefly only to stay on purple.
"Are you ok, Styx?" Dracula randomly asked, causing Afri to look over at the two.
She was silent for a moment before it said in a guttural voice, "Styx isn't here." It surged towards him, purple eye gleaming and talons breaking the second skin. Dracula hissed, dodging the slash before the Ectonurite got kicked by Afri. It screeched before fading from existence.
"... What the fuck," Finch squawked.
-()-
He breathed as he flew through the ground and popped through the ground in a dark room. He dropped his intangibility and his invisibility followed. His single purple eye snapped around as his dark vision allowed him to see the room clearly. He breathed, somewhat relaxing before his eye flickered to magenta and she lifted her claws to their head.
She screamed at him, his mind ringing and engulfing him.
"I- I will not be denied!" he hissed, curling into himself. Herself? Their minds were fighting over their own body.
Out, out, out, get out, this wasn't his body but it also wasn't her body. Was it? Whose body was it, both Styx and Ghostfreak- no, he was Zs'Skayr! No, Styx was supposed to be in control, why was-
Zs'Skayr screamed, "I WILL NOT BE DENIED!" A massive green flash followed.
Gwen crashed to the ground as Zs'Skayr floated there. He realized what just happened and began to chuckle. Gwen looked at the Ectonurite as it began to laugh with complete abandon.
Zs'Skayr looked like a more male version of Styx, but with some key differences. For one, the shape of his head was more of a sheet ghost than skin tight, the necklace that was typically on Styx was gone, and his eye was a sharp purple. The mark of the Omnitrix was nowhere to be seen on him.
He grinned and looked at Gwen. "Hello, little one," Zs'Skayr stated.
"How!" Gwen yelled. "You're supposed to be Styx! What are you, some kind of Ghostfreak?!"
"I WAS NEVER HER! YOU OR ANYONE ELSE!" Zs'Skayr screamed. He calmed himself before growling, "An ectoneurite's consciousness exists even in a few strands of DNA. When my sample was taken for the Omnitrix, a backup copy was made. When you first became an Ectonurite, my body before that was faded, so I was trapped within the Omnitrix. I would assume the Anur System is very confused on why their sample in storage is not working. But I am not whole."
Gwen stepped back and glanced at the watch. A strange teal color, which was new but she had no time to dwell on that.
"I feel unfinished, scrambled… I need the power of the Omnitrix to make myself whole again, and the only way to do that is by taking over your body," Zs'Skayr hissed. He floated a bit closer to her, causing the child to refocus on the alien ghost.
A green glow came from further in the room, Zs'Skayr snapping his attention to the glow. A laser-like burst was released, causing the alien ghost to freak and fade from existence. The beam passed through harmlessly, turning into small sparks when it crashed into the wall.
Pyair came up to her as the lights came on. The Mechamorph said, "Inquiry: Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," Gwen replied, coming over to Pyair. The Galvanic Mechamorph nodded before motioning the child to follow.
As they left, Zs'Skayr came back into sight behind one of the boxes, hidden by shadows. He growled before once again turning invisible and intangible, then following the duo.
-()-
Maxwell Tennyson continued to stare at the screen, biting his lower lip. He was glad the codes for the Mount Rushmore Plumbers Base didn't change, this would be a huge help since he never got to add a signal for either of the watches on his grandchildren into the Rustbucket. Although, there were some parts where it wasn't helping in the slightest.
For one, the strong signal catcher only gave a rough estimate to where the watch holders were and by rough he meant a fourth of the United States. Another, the program was outdated, meaning it won't pick up on machines with newly designed cloaking systems. On the off chance, he activated a few other signal catchers, mainly for different aliens he remembered seeing in the watches. Granted, it was only Ectonurite revival, Petrosapien crystals, and strong mana detection, but it was better than nothing.
Max was about to put the signal catcher in the background when it suddenly rang out, showing an Ectonurite revival signal. His eyes widened and he quickly went across the keyboard. In seconds, it was located. A town that… wasn't there when he retired.
"Activate voice command, Magister Tennyson," Max stated. The computer beeped in reply. "The Ectonurite revival signal, where is it?" The computer beeped again before showing up.
The computer stated, "Sparksville, Utah, USA. High signs of alien activity. Unknown threat level."
Max was flooded with surprise and happiness. Finally, something he could work with. He just hoped Vilgax didn't find them first.
His gut told him that was long pass due.
-()-
Pyair stopped, looked over, then waved over to the others. Gwen looked in the direction and said, "Sister EightEight! Kevin, Ben!" She ran over to them, the three meeting her half way, though Ben was still Dracula.
"Are you ok?" Kevin asked.
"I'm fine, but something happened to the Omnitrix," Gwen replied, holding up the wrist with said device.
From being mentioned, the Omnitrix stated, "Ectonurite DNA is damaged. Moving DNA to storage." The Omnitrix then beeped and turned to a resting red.
"Well that's convenient," Dracula commented.
Pyair then stated, "Inquiry: What should we do about the escaped Ectonurite?"
Thornapple approached them and said, "I say it depends on who the Ectonurite is."
"I think I got a name, no clue if it's true or not," Gwen replied. Thornapple looked at her and made a motion with his hand. "He called himself Zs'Skayr."
"Pups," EightEight growled, Thornapple making a growling hum as Jewir and Er'Apel came over to them.
"Is Cobra hurt at all?" Er'Apel asked.
"Ignoring the Ectonurite thing, I'm fine," Gwen replied, giving a thumbs up.
"Ectonurite thing?" Jewir blinked.
"Ectonurite revival, most likely," Er'Apel stated. "One of my contacts mainly works in the Anur System and told me that Ectonurite revival isn't too harmful to an Ectonurite unless the DNA was damaged in the process. If it is damaged, the Ectonurite in question will be unstable until the DNA is repaired naturally, which can take at minimum three halfmoons to complete."
"How long is a halfmoon?" Kevin asked.
Er'Apel shrugged, but then Kacje randomly popped up and said, "A Fullmoon is roughly four Earth months and there's twelve halfmoons in a Fullmoon."
"How did you get here?" Jewir asked, looking down at the Splixson. Kacje just smiled at Jewir.
"So… Zs'Skayr tried to attack me due to that unstableness, right?" Gwen asked.
"I'm sorry?" Er'Apel chirped, stopping Jewir from replying. Kacje tilted their head.
Jewir looked at them in confusion before asking, "Is there something I'm missing or…?"
"No kidding," Thornapple replied. "You know of Ecto Lords?"
"No?" Jewir replied, confusion lacing his voice. EightEight began to look around the area as Kevin, Gwen, and Dracula looked at the others.
"An Ecto Lord is the ruler of Anur Phaetos, if there isn't one the Ectonurites there freak out, the title can only be passed if the Ecto Lord is stable and on said planet. See the problem?" Thornapple continued.
"Wait, this Zs'Skayr creature is an Ecto Lord?" Kacje asked, looking between Thornapple and Er'Apel.
"Black hole, that's bad," Jewir muttered, looking away a bit.
"Depending on how damaged his DNA is, his mental state will reflect that. At least, that's what I was told," Er'Apel stated.
"So we got an unstable Ecto Lord floating around and no real way to help him," Thornapple summarized. Er'Apel nodded and sighed.
"Child," Er'Apel started, getting Gwen to look at her. "What did Zs'Skayr do after he was revived with broken DNA?"
Gwen clicked her tongue quickly before replying, "He said that he felt unfinished and I think he wanted to do some… Ectonurite thing? Not too sure, the Galvanic Mechamorph interrupted before he could do anything."
The Mechamorph in question stated, "Quote: I feel unfinished, scrambled… I need the power of the Omnitrix to make myself whole again, and the only way to do that is by taking over your body. End quote."
Er'Apel said nothing, but EightEight asked, "Will we need Ectonurite neutralizers?"
"If he wants to possess her, definitely," Thornapple replied. EightEight nodded as the Predatrix beeped and detransformed its user.
As the Sotoraggian slipped off, Ben looked at her and asked, "What are Ectonurite neutralizers?"
"Liquid or gas that can prevent an Ectonurite from using its intangibility, invisibility, and possession," Thornapple answered, causing the Wyrmlings to look at him.
"And, in some cases, be harmful to an Ectonurite's health," Er'Apel glared.
"Explode happy machines or neutralizers," Thornapple simply countered. Er'Apel crossed her arms and looked away. "Good to see we're in agreement."
"Do we… want context?" Kevin asked.
"Sun guns," Kacje squawked.
A seed was suddenly stuffed into Kacje's mouth by a vine with a hand-like claw-pud as Thornapple added, "And that's all you're gonna get on that."
"Ok…?" Kevin replied, voice cracking.
-()-
Zs'Skayr flew around, two of his talons on his right hand mindlessly tapping each other. He froze up when a Sotoraggian walked by him, entering a nearby building. His scrambled mind pushed him to follow, fading through the wall.
The Sotoraggian was looking through one of the boxes, muttering to herself about something. She moved to another box and he settled on one of the taller boxes. Zs'Skayr looked at the top of the box and began to use a talon to draw a sigil.
Once he made the base symbol, he began to write in it. He stopped briefly when the Sotoraggian seemed to yell something, throwing a yellowish tan dagger into the ground. Zs'Skayr refocused on the sigil when some other creature entered the building.
"What's wrong?" a new voice said. When he glanced over, he saw a white furred Loboan. His eye squinted at it- gender neutral Loboans were a pain to connect to- before returning to finishing the sigil.
The Sotoraggian gurgled something in reply, along with a noise of something being pulled from the ground.
"The Ectonurite neutralizers aren't here," the Loboan replied. Zs'Skayr paused as the Loboan continued, "They would be in the safe since… well…"
The Sotoraggian replied something.
"You know, I hate the fact you have a point."
More gurgling, but it lasted longer this time. At some point in there, there was some odd 'clink' noise.
"I mean…"
Zs'Skayr finished his message and quickly finished the outer part of the sigil. The Sotoraggian gurgled again.
Suddenly the sigil exploded in a burst of purplish magenta. Zs'Skayr screeched as his sun skin was torn more, revealing more of his arms. Boney, but covered with a ruining purple cloth.
"IT'S OVER HERE!" the Loboan howled, but it seemed further away. Zs'Skayr looked at the Sotoraggian and Loboan, finding the Loboan gone and-
He turned intangible at the last moment and the dagger passed through without harm. The Sotoraggian yelled something, then there was a crash and an orange gas surrounded him.
Zs'Skayr blinked out of his tunnel vision and surged towards the wall. He slammed his into, his intangibility fading as he recovered. The Ectonurite hissed as the Sotoraggian yelled something.
"What the…" Zs'Skayr growled before looking towards the Sotoraggian. "Well well well… looks like that Loboan was incorrect about the whole thing. But I need to be-"
He froze then surged away as the bell of an Anurian Shadow rang around him.
-()-
Belltail laughed as not-Styx flew away from him. He didn't know exactly why the Predatrix timed in so quickly, but he wasn't going to complain. He faded into view, but his intangibility was still up as his tail rang and he followed the Ectonurite. Was its name actually Zs'Skayr? Either way, it didn't deserve to be called that, at least to him. The Ectonurite wasn't even scary.
Belltail smiled as he backed not-Styx into a corner. He faded from sight and not-Styx tensed as Belltail laughed. Not-Styx flickered slightly, but its body refused to act due to the gas. The Anurian Shadow looked around briefly, spotting the door open and a light outside of it.
"C-Come out!" not-Styx yelled.
He stayed silent in reply, causing the Ectonurite to look around in panic. Belltail came up behind it before releasing a flame and dropping the invisibility. Not-Styx screeched as Belltail began to laugh, the bell once again ringing as he flew above the Ghostfreak. Ah, screw it, he'll call the Ectonurite Ghostfreak, it doesn't deserve to be attached to Styx if it couldn't handle him.
Ghostfreak surged away, ripping off the rest of the second skin as it burned away. Under the second skin, he seemed almost identical to Styx under the skin, though the draped tentacles were much thicker and he was bigger in general. The inverted skull looked towards him, the purple eye pierced as Belltail floated after him.
Ghostfreak surged away from him, seemingly noticing the open door. He snapped his attention to Belltail, who had smoke pouring from his mouth, a small flame held in his mouth. Ghostfreak paused, floating back slowly as he looked back and forth from Belltail and the door.
"Scared?" Belltail laughed. That seemed to be the kicker, causing Ghostfreak to surge towards the door.
Which suddenly closed. A bright, sudden burst of light from below Ghostfreak caused both ghost-likes to screech. Belltail faded into a box, but Ghostfreak didn't share the same fate. The Ectonurite burned into dust, which gathered on the ground. The bright light disappeared and Belltail reappeared.
"Was that necessary, Athena?" Belltail asked, looking down at the Galvan.
"I thought you weren't affected by UV light," Athena replied, putting down the odd sunlight-creating gun device and hopping onto one of the boxes.
"I'm not, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt," Belltail replied as he floated above the ashes of Ghostfreak. The door opened and Belltail collected Athena as EightEight, Thornapple, Kevin, and Kacje entered.
"It worked to say the least," Thornapple commented as Kacje split and began to search for something in the room.
"Er'Apel is gonna hate us for the next few weeks," EightEight commented.
"Yup," Thornapple replied.
Kacje returned, as one, with a plastic bin. "Can you guys help get the ashes into this bin?"
"Oh yea, sure," Kevin replied. Athena and Belltail nodded, the four gathering around the ashes.
EightEight was quiet for a moment before whispering, "Thornapple."
"Hm?" Thornapple hummed.
"I want to run an idea by Dragua," she whispered. The Spring Florauna nodded.
"K," he replied.
-()-
"We got a message. Mana message from Lord Zs'Skayr."
"Really!?"
"Does it have Lord Zs'Skayr's mana signal on it?"
"It does, Viktor."
"Right on, M!"
"Benwolf, tell the Ecto Council that we got a ping."
"Got it, Viktor!"
"M, pinpoint the location."
"Understood."
A beat.
"I do not like the looks of this."
"What's wrong?"
"The first word is 'scrambled'."
"He was revived with damaged DNA… dawn it all!"
"It has finished translating. A short message."
"Read it."
"Scrambled. Hunted. May fade. Find, repair, escape. Find, repair, control."
"Hm…"
"He will need you to ground him when we get Lord Zs'Skayr back, Viktor."
"I can see that. Pinpoint his location."
"Understood."
-()-
Vilgax breathed as the drones stood around him. The tank opened up and he walked out, ignoring the pain flaring in his left arm. Some of the drones let out a noise of unclear reason.
One of the drones, the angel-like one, approached him and asked, "What will be your next action, sir?"
Vilgax was silent before saying, "The users of the Predatrix and Omnitrix are aligned. As long as they are as such, the Omnitrix is protected by creatures much stronger than itself. If we can get the Predatrix out of the way or on some creature clearly without the confidence its current wielder holds, the Omnitrix's holder will have to rely on their own strength. We will retrieve the Predatrix to prevent what happened last. Start the ship and we shall do so as soon as possible."
An echoing "Understood!" followed and the drones scattered. Vilgax looked at the drone who spoke to him, then the drone in question began to move. He followed through the ship the drones had taken as a base.
Ushi: 'B' or any other letter is what season I'm currently in while the '7'/any number is which episode/character of the season said chapter is. As for the alien design more disappointing, probably Fasttrack. I guess it's because I would've been fine with another speedy alien if it was very different. Like, yes XLR8 and Jetray are both very fast, but they do not resemble each other at all.