Viktor looked at the machine Benwolf dragged back. It was beat up, somewhat rusty, and missing some parts, but it was still usable. The missing parts could be easily replaced, they were expected to be damaged in some way. As for the rusted bits, he just needed to make sure they kept their mana elements, then use a minor repair spell to fix it. The dented and broken bits could be fixed, but would take better and more specific repairing spells than for the rust.
Viktor looked towards Benwolf and M. "This is repairable. We have ways to fix it up for Lord Zs'Skayr's revival. We still need something to power it with, which the Corrodium should cover." Benwolf just nodded a bit, while M simply looked on.
"Who's gonna get the Corrodium?" Benwolf asked.
"Myself and Viktor talked about this while you were away," M began, causing Benwolf to look at them. "We decided that I would be the one to go, due to being able to carry Corrodium in my chest."
"That's true," Benwolf shrugged.
"Now that it's determined what we still need," Viktor began, causing the two to look at him, "we can begin gathering other items that we need. Benwolf, you'll stay with me to provide a mana charge." The Loboan's ear twitched before he nodded. "M, go out and get the Corrodium."
"Understood," M replied. The Thep Khufan stood from their spot and started off, silently leaving the ship. Once M was gone, Benwolf grabbed the crystal on the table, held it up to his neck, and pressed it. The robe reformed and he approached Transylian.
Benwolf's ears pinned back slightly before he said to himself, "This is gonna suck…"
…
M flung himself to the top of the Earthen building, the moon brightly shining down upon this odd location. He perched himself on the tower, looking around with his beady magenta eyes. From what he could tell, it seemed like the Earth version of a cropland. Looking around more, it seemed more of a mix between cropland and cattle-section. His eyes caught a dark vehicle near the Earthen home, staring at it briefly.
The Thep Khufan bent and leapt off the odd tower. M extended his bandage-like arms forwards, allowing them to wrap to another of the odd towers, then flung himself upwards. He soared up before landing gracefully on another building. The pink energy flowing through his body bubbled, as if begging to be released.
He lifted up his hands, then paused. He didn't realize there was a light coming from the building. M tilted his head slightly before whisperingly commanding, "Mashhad thani."
In a small blink, a light pink, orb-like creature with odd horns and three detached pairs of wings appeared. Its face was a darker color, but its eyes were a bright, vibrant magenta. M paused slightly at the creature. He breathed then moved his hand. The creature began to fly away and down towards the building. M closed his eyes and suddenly his vision was that of the creature he summoned.
The creature stopped near the window, looking in. Inside of the room it was peaking into was a ground of what he guessed were this planet's natives talking with each other. The room's walls had some images, but he didn't recognize what any of them showed. If he had to guess, the scenery of this planet. (In his opinion, hideous.) In the center of the room was a table with two groups on either side of the table. The smaller of the two groups appeared to be normal Earth natives. The second group, however, was off putting to him.
While the smaller group was just a family of five, the other side of the table had eight members and, while most likely natives, they definitely weren't normal natives. Four of them stood more off to the side, which included the smallest three and who seemed to be their guardian. The other four were actually at the table, the one sitting down doing the talking. One of the other three that were standing up was seemingly providing translations while the other two were simply more guard-like.
The creature's eyes finally took note of the guardian of the smallest three staring straight at it, so he made it pop away. M opened his eyes before sighing. He turned and leapt to the ground. The Thep Khufan's pink bits dimmed as he slithered/walked his way behind a large building that held Earthen animals.
M stopped before lifting his hands and casting, "Aibhath ean mada: kurudyum." A small magenta thread appeared, leading him towards what seemed like a specialized Earthen animal holding. M slinked over to it and looked at it. The only animal within it was a strange small, plump, purple, bird… thing in the small building within the holding. In the center of the holding was a purple, shining material sticking out of the dirt.
He reached a hand down to it, somewhat grabbed it, then pulled up. With a harsh, zapping 'snap', a small piece of the material was pulled out. M observed it a bit, staring at it. His mind bubbled, this was Corrodium. M stared at the piece in his hand before lifting it to his chest. The wrappings opened up, allowing the Corrodium to go into his chest.
M felt the Corrodium bubble within him. His long fingers tapped the ground in a practiced motion. He didn't know how large this Corrodium deposit was, nor how much the machine would need. Viktor didn't specify how much. He kept silent, ignoring the anger trying to rise up within him.
M perked up at a noise and looked around slightly. He stared at the odd bird, which made the same noise as before. The bird walked in a circle, M staring at it. His head tilted slightly as the bird made the noise again.
The Thep Khufan breathed in, then looked back at the Corrodium. There was no time to get distracted. The noise came form the animal again as lifted a hand and casted, "Taharuk al'ard." A dark pink surrounded some of the dirt and began to float the soil away from the Corrodium.
As the dirt moved away, M observed the Corrodium being uncovered. From what was seen so far, it was more than an odd deposit on Earth. No, it was more of a meteor that somehow traveled from Anur to this backwater planet. He wasn't going to leave this clear gift from their system here, it would help not only bring back Lord Zs'Skayr, but help them get back to their home system. He reached to snap off another piece when a green light went off behind him. M turned back as a red flash of light followed.
M stared towards where the lights came from, silent. The noise of talking followed, along with footsteps. M made a small motion with his hand, the pink surrounding the soil fading and allowing it to fall to the ground in a heap. He lifted himself to a tense stance and his wrappings closed up, blocking the pink glow from everywhere except his eyes.
Tense time passed and a Loboan walked pass the building. M stared, lowering his arms slightly. The Loboan was looking towards where it came from, saying something in an unknown language.
Then came an Anurian Shadow.
"Emocha Objectia!" M yelled, throwing his hand forward and releasing a massive burst of pinkish blue energy.
-()-
"Pandora!" she barked.
"Belltail!" he wisped.
EightEight nodded, Kevin next to her. The other four, dressed as a coyote, panda, mustang, and brown rabbit respectively were off to the side, messaging someone on one of their Dragoon badges. The disguised Sotoraggian then said, "You two go ahead first. We know where the Corrodium is, we just need more information on it." Pandora and Belltail nodded. The Loboan began towards the selected direction, followed by the Anurian Shadow.
As Pandora walked between the buildings, she looked back towards the other. "Where do we need to go again?"
"Chicken coop," Belltail wisped, floating after her.
Suddenly, something yelled, "Emocha Objectia!" and caused them to look over. Belltail snapped to intangibility and the burst of pink-blue passed through him. The blast came from what was effectively a mummy.
Belltail began swinging his tail, the bell ringing out as Kevin squawked, "What happened?!"
As Belltail surged towards the mummy, who reacted quite poorly, Pandora barked, "There's some kind of mummy thing!"
The mummy pulled itself onto the roof of the coop, a pink glow flooding out from between its bandages. It pointed an arm at Belltail and seemingly yelled, "Tempest ignis!" A wave of fire was released towards Belltail, but he floated through it like it was nothing. Pandora snapped her attention towards the two before leaping forward and releasing a sonic howl. It crashed into the mummy, sending it back as Belltail simply stared, bell ringing over and over and over.
Kevin and EightEight ran over, quickly joining Pandora and Belltail. The disguised Sotoraggian dashed forward, lifting a talon, before suddenly jumping to the side. In the center of the chicken coop was a purple glow, sticking out like a sore thumb. Pandora launched herself towards the mummy, followed by Belltail, but before Kevin could follow, EightEight yelled, "Do not get close to the Corrodium!"
"That's Corrodium?" Kevin asked, stalling slightly and pointing towards the purple light.
The mummy condensed into itself and collapsed, barely dodging a slash from Pandora. It launched itself towards her chest, slamming her back. The Omnitrix beeped as it happened and Belltail released a wave of flame at the mummy. It screeched, releasing a sudden burst of magenta, the flames disappearing in the burst. Pandora was pushed back and Belltail released an unholy screech of pain and faded from view.
The mummy took this chance to bolt away from the farm, but was stopped by a talon pinning its leg to the ground. Pandora quickly pounced on the mummy, effectively trapping it between the ground and herself. EightEight came over to the two, along with Kevin as Belltail came back to visibility.
The mummy suddenly began to thrash, forcing Pandora to growl and grip onto it more. Belltail floated over, still somewhat dazed. The mummy seemed to notice the Anurian Shadow and completely froze up.
EightEight looked at Kevin and asked, "Go back to the others, ask if any of them know Anurian." Kevin looked at her and nodded before going back to the others.
-()-
M's mind was drowned in fear. The Anurian Shadow was floating very nearby, causing his mind to run purely on fear. The Loboan who pinned him was somehow unaffected by the fear of an Anurian Shadow. The two simply stared at him, along with one of the oddly dressed natives. His fear flooded mind refused to pinpoint what exact species the outfit resembled.
M felt himself being lifted up and carried somewhere, but the constant knowledge the Anurian Shadow was nearby kept him from moving. The sound of chains helped bring his mind out of fear and his vision began to clear.
When the fear finally left him and everything was clear, M looked around. He took a deep breath. Locking his hands together was a cuff designed to keep Thep Khufans from slipping out of them. Same with his ankles and feet. Chains attached the manacles to the floor of a cage, which was that of a normal keepmal cage just larger. The cage was within some sort of dark room with the only light being from above, the cage blocking it, and from beyond the door. M's pink eyes looked towards the door as it opened, revealing three creatures.
The first was a Musericius, a humanoid rat-hedgehog species, wearing baggy olive clothes with an ID mask hanging from its hip. The second was a Shadowian, a humanoid with bird features and covered with an odd dark shadow, wearing a formal suit. The third was a species he didn't recognize, being seemingly robotic in nature while still wearing an odd wool-like material and a necklace with a shining orange charm on it.
The robotic one stepped up to the cage, looking down at M. M simply looked at it before looking closer at the other two. The Shadowian stood near the door, completely silent while the Musericius leaned against the wall, eyes constantly moving between the three. He also noticed another creature behind the Shadowian, but M didn't recognize the species silhouette.
"Hello," the robotic one finally stated. Its voice was somewhat static-y, but still sounded organic in nature. There was no kind of any robotic shift or undead presence in its voice.
M looked at it and made a small nod.
The robotic figure continued, "Silent, are we? Very well. I have ways to make you speak."
The Musericius commented something in a language M never learned. The robotic figure replied in the same language, never taking its three eyes off of M.
The robotic figure then said, "Our conversation will be recorded and translated for later use. Answer, or it will be noted for later. State your name, title, and species."
M breathed slightly before replied, "M the Thep Khufan, Mage of Lord Zs'Skayr's council."
The robotic figure motioned towards the Musericius, who pressed something it held.
"Mission Code Rockstone. Purpose: find and collect the Corrodium deposit and contact the Galactic Enforcers to take it off of Earth. Reason for voiceover: A Thep Khufan, name: M, title: Mage of Lord Zs'Skayr's council, was captured after attempting to take some Corrodium. Recorded by Conquertron of the Dragoon. Begin interview," the robotic figure stated.
-()-
As the quartet left the vehicle they brought the mummy too, Gwen asked, "Why did we have to wait to make sure that the mummy was awake?"
"If it was going to try to escape right away, Tsukuyomi wanted us to be there just in case," EightEight answered. Gwen nodded in reply and the group continued on.
They came back to near the coop, looking on. One of the other Dragoon members, the one wearing an ID mask that made it dress like a panda, poked at something within the coop itself with a large metal stick. It noticed them and stood up.
"The chicken's purple. That's probably not normal," Panda-mask commented as they came over.
"Chickens are depicted as white, sometimes brown but not purple," Kevin replied.
"Also, it's dead, so also bad," Panda-mask shrugged.
"Most likely the effects of Corrodium," EightEight stated.
"Probably the weird crystal stuff," Panda-mask said at the same time.
Ben blinked before looking at Gwen and asking, "The mummy touched the Corrodium and didn't harm itself, right? Did it touch the Omnitrix?" Gwen immediately looked towards and activated the Omnitrix, the dial popping up.
Without even moving the dial, it showed the silhouette of a strange female wearing odd items. Panda-mask looked over.
"Uh… do any of you know what that is?" Panda-mask asked, pointing at the silhouette.
"If Ben's theory is correct, a Thep Khufan," EightEight gurgled.
"Sister Afri said a Thep Khufan," Gwen relayed.
A beat.
"Is that a mummy or something?" Panda-mask deadpanned, staring at it. Gwen lifted her hand and pressed down. A green flash consumed her.
Within the flash, the Omnitrix turned into green energy just before her skin snapped apart into long, tan wrappings. Hehe bandages consumed her, revealing her arms to not hold any bones. The green energy of the Omnitrix reformed around her as more bandages began to appear, forming limbs. A piece of the green energy formed a headdress over most of her head and the wrappings formed the rest of her face, including an odd bird-like mask. Two glowing purple eyes appeared within the eye holds of the mask.
The flash vanished. In Gwen's place was effectively a small, female mummy wearing an odd dress. On her face was a headdress altered to have cat-like ears and a bird-like beak while being green accented with blue. The bandages were tan and her clothes were mostly a forest green with accented blue. She looked at herself as the Omnitrix symbol sat on her headdress just above the mask. On her neck was a bronze necklace.
As she did so, EightEight nodded, "A Thep Khufan. Like other Anur species, they're immune to Corrodium and have some level of dark vision. They can stretch and regenerate the wrappings that make up their bodies, along with messing with mana. However, they can easily be subdued by an Anurian Shadow."
Panda-mask hummed before stated, "Looks like a mummy. Cool. Creepy vibes."
"So… how is that gonna help move the Corrodium?" Kevin asked. Panda-mask shrugged, EightEight seemingly squinted and looked towards the ground, the new form was silent, and Ben stared into the night sky.
Good minute of silence passed before Ben looked at EightEight and questioned, "Do Thep Khufan's bandage… wrapping things block out the dangerous parts of Corrodium?"
The disguised Sotoraggian tilted her head. "I actually don't know. I've only worked with a Thep Khufan once, and even then it was by proxy due to the nature of the mission," EightEight explained.
The Omnitrix made Thep Khufan looked at EightEight, then towards the Corrodium. She said, "No time like the present, then." She walked over to the chicken coop. The Omnitrix beeped slightly, but did nothing.
As the Thep Khufan came up to the Corrodium piece, EightEight hummed, "She typically names her forms, correct?"
Ben nodded slightly while Kevin replied, "Dunno what she's gonna call this one, though."
"I'm not gonna ask for context…" Panda-mask muttered, crossing his arms.
She extended her bandage-made hands to the crystal-like substance before wrapping them around what was visible. Once that was done, she yanked up. The ground broke around it, but the chunk of Corrodium barely moved. She made an odd growl that sounded more of sand moving via the wind, before she once again attempted to pull up the chunk.
The other four watch, Panda-mask saying something as he took a breath, messy-ing his words. A few more seconds passed, another yank being attempted before Ben turned to EightEight and asked, "Are there any other species that aren't affected by Corrodium?"
The disguised Sotoraggian was quiet for a moment before she answered, "Most known species that are either resistant or immune to Corrodium tend to be species made of actual crystals, are in an odd spot of being 'energy beings', or robots designed to help extract Corrodium. Key examples are Petrosapiens, Anodites, and those weird radiation robots the Plumbers made. I'm not aware of any non-sapient species immune to Corrodium other than the obvious Anurian Shadow, Transylrack, and other species from Anur in general."
Ben looked towards the ground before moving away from the group. Panda-mask raised a masked brow towards him while EightEight simply watched him. The boy looked toward them briefly before he activated the Predatrix. A sudden flash of red caused Kevin and the Omnitrix-made Thep Khufan to look over.
"Hexadeca!" the two headed spider-like proclaimed.
The Thep Khufan detached her hands from the bandages around the Corrodium before looking at the Spideros. She asked, "What are you doing?"
Both heads of Hexadeca answered at the same time, "We want to see if our string can pull up the Corrodium better."
"Interesting idea," EightEight gurgled as the Thep Khufan seemingly perked up at that and nodded. She moved out of the way as Hexadeca lifted himself a bit before shooting a web from his lower mouth. The web slammed and covered the crystal. The second head clamped down on the string as the other head grabbed the string as well.
Suddenly, Hexadeca yanked back at the webstring. The ground and crystal broke, being dragged out. Panda-mask and EightEight moved back, the disguised Sotoraggian pulling Kevin before he could move closer. The Spideros's upper head let go of the string before the head said, "Uh… that… didn't mean to happen."
Panda-mask looked over to the broken chunk and said, "Wrap it up in something, I dunno. We'll just take it in two pieces, it shouldn't be that big of a deal."
-(...)-
M was silent before he simply answered, "We do not need much to revive Zs'Skayr, though some extra might be necessary if his mind is damaged or to make sure we leave this planet as safely as possible with a mind-warped Ectonurite."
Conquertron stared down at him before the robotic's odd voice questioned, "And what will you and the rest of this Zs'Skayr's posse do when he has been revived?"
"Return to our home system to get Lord Zs'Skayr proper treatment for his damage," M emotionlessly answered, eyes somewhat dim.
The Musericius said something, causing M to look towards the creature. Conquertron seemingly inquired about something to the Musericius. The rat continued for a few seconds before finishing.
Conquertron got M to refocus on him before snapping, "According to records from Base UT-S3, this Zs'Skayr attacked outright. How are three of you posse supposed to keep this Ecto Lord in line long enough to get back to the Anur System?"
M stalled. His mind realized that Viktor never told him that far into the plan. The Thep Khufan looked dead to the ground, avoiding Conquertron's gaze, before whispering, "Viktor never told me…"
"Say it louder," Conquertron growled.
"Viktor never told me," M repeated, matching the volume used by the Musericius.
Conquertron was silent for a moment before making a hand motion and snapping, "Interview end." The Musericius did something with the object in its hands.
The Shadowian finally said something, the only indication that it's doing so being its echo-y voice. The Shadowian's head turned slightly when a noise came from behind it. It then added something. The rat nodded, along with saying something in mockery. Conquertron said something in the same language to the two (three?). Both made their own reactions, the Musericius with disgust and Shadowian with a wispy facepalm. The one behind the Shadowian said something else, causing Conquertron to nod. The robotic figure looked back to M as the Musericius took the ID mask off his belt and placed it on its face.
"This is what will happen," Conquertron started as the Shadowian turned away to leave and the rat's appearance changed to a dog thing as it followed. "While the others were extracting the Corrodium, a chunk broke off. You can have the smaller chunk, but make sure this Zs'Skayr gets off the planet safely. Understood?" M nodded, but nothing. "Answer me."
"Understood," M said. Suddenly, the chains snapped off of him and the cage opened.
"The piece you're taking will be outside. Now get out," Conquertron said. M quickly slinged himself out of the cage before moving towards the door. On the other side, the Shadowian glanced at M as the Thep Khufan moved for the door leaning out of the vehicle.
M was pushed, folding onto the ground of dirt. He pushed himself up as the vehicle closed and left the area. M pushed himself up, folding his hand to a paper-miesha scrapper and scraping some of the dirt off of him. He paused, noticing a wrapped object sitting off to the side. The Thep Khufan finished cleaning himself off before going over to the wrapped item. Looking at it, it was poorly wrapped in a weird mix of Thep Khufan 'skin' and a web-like silk. A symbol painted in purple laid on one of the 'skin' pieces with a symbol that looks like a crystal piece in front of a biohazard symbol. A warning of Corrodium. He wrapped his hands around it before beginning to drag it away.
Ushi: 1- Most dangerous alien... any alien could be considered dangerous, but I'm going to say Goop. He's made of freaking acid. 2- Original series, if only because he actually had eyes. 3- I feel like I implied what happened with the Rooters in B1, but if you don't remember, technically speaking Alan and Servantis are the only Rooters, but it was quickly disbanded once Servantis messed with Alan's genetics.