"I wasn't aware there were nature preserves on this planet," Psychobos commented as EightEight put on an ID mask and disguised as Dealla.
"Earth is probably considered a coral-type planet, so," Dealla shrugged.
Gwen looked at Kevin and said, "You haven't used the Damana identity very much."
Kevin shrugged, putting on the ID mask. "We haven't really been to any places that's easily visited by humans at all."
"Yea, Yellowstone can be considered popular," Ben nodded.
"Yellowstone? Curious," Psychobos hummed.
-()-
The giant rat mount continued to scurry and flop as it dashed down the tunnel, Animo grinned as he rode it.
Eventually, the rat slowed and stopped as Animo looked the way he came. He flicked on his goggles and the night vision kicked in. Nothing. Animo let out a small laugh before saying, "Well, let's surface."
He got off the rat, which prompted it to turn towards the wall and start digging. The mad scientist lifted up the device around his neck and strapped it around his nose and mouth. His cloak shifted slightly, the entire setup looking somewhat like a moth.
Animo stayed near the rat as it dug to the surface, the setup's antennas drooping around his head the entire time. As they ascended, he absentmindedly kept a hand on the mask. The rat itself was mutated with the same formula as the crow, but luckily this rat didn't show the same signs of annoyance as that crow. Speaking of that crow, where the hell was it? Doesn't matter in the end, but it would be nice to see how the weird grey genes changed the thing.
The rat broke the ground and scurried out, followed by Animo. The mad scientist grinned, standing up and unstrapping the mask.
Suddenly, the rat screeched and a teal crystal smashed through its skull from the ground. Animo froze, face morphing to due confusion as he stared at the strange scene. A moving, crystalline statue appeared, one of its arms morphed into a blade and it stabbed the arm into the rat's head again.
Animo raised a brow at the creature- imagine the genetics on this thing- as it took its arm out and the strange crystal that came from the ground began to shrink. The crystalline looked at him and said something in some weird language. When the scientist didn't answer, the crystalline repeated it in a different tongue- probably, it just sounded different, he still wasn't sure what was said.
Finally, the crystalline landed on the right language and asked, "What are you doing here, brown Necrofriggian?"
Animo perked. "Nercofriggian? I haven't heard of that before. But there haven't been any moving statues either," Animo commented.
The crystalline muttered, "Fragment." It turned to where it came from and, in some other language, yelled something.
After a few moments, a frankenstein-eske creature appeared and looked at him. Animo stared at the newcomer, as did it, before the creature looked at the crystalline and said something.
The crystalline muttered, "I'm not being a translator-" It then yelled something else, again in a different language.
After a few moments, a humanoid-ish crab came into view and up to the crystalline and frankenstein-eske. The crystalline began to talk in the other language and the crab looked at it. As it spoke, a werewolf came up to them as well, ears flicking.
The crystalline stopped speaking and the crab looked at Animo. "Who are you?" the crab demanded.
Animo raised a brow, but answered, "Why should I tell you?"
Suddenly, the crab stepped over to him and kicked him. Animo squawked as he collapsed to the ground. The crab repeated, "Weak humans. Who are you?"
Animo glared at the crab, stood back up, dusted off his cloak, then answered, "I am Doctor Animo."
The four strange creatures looked at each other. The crystalline stated something, then turned around and left. The werewolf followed, then did the frankenstein-eske. The crab looked again at Animo and stated, "Do not get in our way and you will be fine." The crab grabbed the dead rat and dragged it after the other three.
He followed the crab, taking out his notepad and a pencil. Animo wasn't about to let this slip away, there was just an unmissable opportunity here. Maybe he could also snag some DNA samples as well…
-(...)-
The day was nice, the sun shining upon them. The four walked along the path, the lake reflecting the sunlight along their surface. The noise of wildlife sung around them.
"I forgot how beautiful coral-type planets can be," Dealla- EightEight, same same- commented, hands in her pockets. "Sotoragg's surface is mostly rocks and sands."
"Do other coral-type planets have a similar surface to Earth?" Ben asked.
"Doctor Psychobos is the better one to ask about that," Dealla replied. "I'm just a bounty hunter. I don't pay attention to planet types unless it heavily affects the mission."
"Really?" Gwen blinked.
"To be fair, it's mostly acid-type planets," Dealla shrugged. "Even then, acid-type planets are weird because they're oddly specific."
The Nemetrix suddenly beeped, causing the group to stop and all look at said watch. The red part of it began to flash a pale purple color, and continued as if waiting for something. "What is it?" Damana- Kevin, same same- asked.
Ben lifted up his arm, his other hand coming to the edge of the watch. "I don't know," Ben replied, a finger tapping the edge of the watch. After a moment, he pressed the watch itself and a hologram appeared.
"Good to see this function works," Psychobos commented through the hologram, a claw clicking.
"Wait, since when was the Predatrix a communicator?" Dealla asked.
"Nemetrix, and it was one of the first things I added once I finished the transformation function," Psychobos replied. "It was a fun challenge considering Cerebrocrustaceans like myself speak telepathically."
"Why did you do… well, I guess contact us?" Ben asked, looking towards the ground for a moment.
"Call me curious, but I decided to use the tech scanner to see what level tech was in the area," Psychobos began. "Ignoring obvious alien tech such as the Dark Eagle and Nemetrix, the tech level was of what was expected, but I noticed a level spike here to level six."
"That's not normal," Dealla commented.
The hologram showed Psychobos nodding and he added, "I did a more specific search and found there's a group of Encephalona Cyber Squids here. Do you know if there's a reason for that?"
"There's another horde of Cyber Squids on Earth?" Dealla hissed.
"Pardon?" Psychobos inquired.
"Remind me to tell you about Sparksville at some point, but we have bigger problems because there's Cyber Squids here," Dealla replied. She reached up to her ID mask and touched something on it, the strange hardlight disguise shifting to Afri. "Where are they gathered?"
Psychobos looked at something offscreen (off-hologram?) before looking back and answering, "Based on the scan, they seemed to be gathered near the bottom of a lake of sorts. I believe that's the human word I'm thinking of."
Afri looked at Gwen before saying, "Transform into Tiamat. Crow, copy the Volann DNA once she transforms." The disguised Sotoraggian looked at Ben. "Transform into Starray. We need to check if the Cyber Squids are doing anything to harm the environment. Psychobos, will Rat transforming affect the call in any way?"
"It will make it audio only," Psychobos shrugged. Afri nodded in reply as Damana took off his ID mask.
A green flashed caused them to look over. "Tiamat!" the pale purple scaled fish proclaimed.
As Kevin absorbed some DNA from Tiamat, Psychobos commented, "ID masks are not known to survive very well underwater. I would recommend taking them off."
Afri looked at the hologram before it broke to static as Ben activated the Nemetrix. The now mutated Kevin placed his ID mask to the side as Tiamat and Ben approached the water. A red flash and Starray flowed into the lake. Kevin rushed to join them as Tiamat slipped under the surface and Afri walked to the edge of the water.
"Kevin, keep your badge's commlink on," Afri called. Kevin threw up a thumbs up before splashing down through the surface.
Starray glided through the water, lowering to the sandy bed of the lake's floor. His sun-colored eyes scanned the lakebed as Tiamat swam above him. The bioluminescent light from Tiamat's lure shone through the water as they swam, Kevin close behind them with his badge in his mutated hands (claws?).
"There!" Tiamat suddenly proclaimed, beating her tail faster. Starray shifted slightly to follow the Piscciss Volann, as did Kevin.
The horde of Cyber Squids gathered in a swirling orb in the water. The fish that swam around actively avoided the swarm as they touched each other with their mechanical tentacles. Inside, through the blue-tinted glass, was a strange liquid that seemed to be an orange color.
The Nemetrix badge beeped slight, then Psychobos's voice said, "If I could get an image of the horde, I could pinpoint what they're holding in their tanks."
Tiamat came up to the horde, her lure's light shining upon the closest members of the horde. Starray glided over as she said, "I think it's a liquid, but I can't see through it at all."
Starray commented, "The liquid looks… brown I want to say? The glass is blue, I think."
"An orange liquid, then?" Psychobos asked.
"I dunno, maybe," Tiamat shrugged.
"Thick orange liquid… the only thing I can think of with those properties is minor-cooled Pyros stored magma," Psychobos muttered.
"That's a long name," Kevin commented, before releasing a weird cough.
"No talking," EightEight's voice snapped through the badge Kevin held. "If it was stored magma, it would have tiny chunks of rock in it."
"While I'm not too familiar with Pyros storage habits, when Khyber was retrieving Crabdozer DNA from a bioreserve, he mentioned the Pyronite who watched the Crabdozer drink some without the rock chunks," Psychobos commented.
"Weird as towerspark, I'm not counting that."
"Not surprising, really."
Tiamat looked at Kevin, who was just staring at the badge with a weird face, then at Starray who was still looking at the horde of Cyber Squids.
"Should I break one of them or…?" Tiamat asked.
A pause, then Psychobos said, "Don't try to completely destroy it, but go ahead."
Tiamat swam up the horde, then paused. The water swished pass her as the horde swam. She held a claw back, then thrust it forwards. Quickly, she bolted away as the Cyber Squid began thrashing as the orange liquid spilled and quickly hardened.
As the horde noticed their thrashing comrade, Tiamat hissed, "That's was burning."
"It's turning into rocks," Starray pointed out.
"It isn't Pyros magma then," EightEight gurgled through the badge as Kevin backed away.
"Curious… I am unsure what this is then if it's simply turning to stone," Psychobos stated.
"Just destroy them, then?" Starray questioned.
"Try not to break them into too many pieces, it'll most likely need to be cleaned up," Psychobos replied.
The Omnitrix suddenly began to beep, causing Tiamat to surge back. Tiamat surged toward the surge and a sudden screech was released from the Omnitrix.
"Error! Code S-LF-L-9 activated! Enforcing Lifeform Lock!" the Omnitrix screeched. A pink light blinked from the Omnitrix, then stopped. Tiamat froze for a moment, then the Nemetrix began to beep.
Suddenly, a red flash surrounded Starray and the stingray-like creature was replaced with a massive dog-octopus fusion thing. It had a chonky, large body with eight long tentacles. Its head was somewhat of a squishy block with a beak, horns, tubes, and magenta eyes. Around its neck was the Nemetrix and its body was a maroon color with a few brownish spots.
"What just happened?" EightEight's voice chirped from the badge Kevin held.
From the Nemetrix, Psychobos replied, "For the Nemetrix, I simply transformed Ben into a Vicetopus and activated lifeform lock. As for the Omnitrix, I assume a failsafe." Then, much quieter, Psychobos whispered, "I'm trusting you with this, Ben."
"Weird," Kevin commented. Tiamat swam back to the horde of Cyber Squids, then paused.
"No talking," EightEight repeated.
Psychobos randomly commented, "I've never seen how Osmosian internals change when absorbing the DNA of water-bound species."
"Please don't science babble," EightEight deadpanned. Psychobos laughed slightly.
Tiamat's claws smashed against another of the Cyber Squids, releasing the liquid into the water once again. The Vicetopus form approached the horde and threw a tentacle into it, disturbing the path of many Cyber Squids, causing a few to crash or smash into the tentacle. The Cyber Squids began to freak as the orange liquid continued to turn to stone. Tiamat surged into the mix, slashing at another squid as the Vicetopus moved the tentacle already in the mix while approaching a bit.
Kevin moved towards it, but EightEight suddenly snapped, "Kevin, don't you dare touch them. We don't know what the liquid is and how it affects humans." Kevin backed away slightly.
"How big is the horde?" Psychobos asked just before the Cyber began to screech like hell brought to life.
"The towerspark," EightEight hissed as Tiamat and the Vicetopus continued to attack the machine. Suddenly, one of the Cyber Squids slammed itself into Tiamat and the orange liquid split onto her, quickly hardening and sticking to her body.
Tiamat screeched as another squid lashed its sharp tentacles at her before it was smashed but one of the Vicetopus's tentacles. The Cyber Squid released another hell-tearing screech as they surged around the duo. The sharp tentacles of the machines surged around them, lashing against the Vicetopus's skin and Tiamat's burnt scales.
Tiamat screeched again, seared claws slashing at the rushing horde around her. The Vicetopus didn't seem too bothered by the squids attacking it, but lashed two of his thick, long tentacles at the robots around Tiamat. The orange liquid continued to spill around them, hardening to rocks and falling to the lakebed.
Through the badge, EightEight snapped, "I'm coming to you guys."
"Wha-" Kevin started, but a click came from the badge before he could finish.
The Cyber Squids screeched again, the horde slowly becoming smaller yet much louder. Their swarming became faster and very few of them did what they did before crashing into their target willingly. Tiamat continued to slash, but more of her attacks were missing as the stuck rocks began to drag her down. The Vicetopus appeared more focused on the mechanical squids, tentacles reaching and crushing some of them.
Suddenly, a talon crashed into a Cyber Squid and they freaked, releasing another hell piercing screech. Tiamat, Kevin and the Vicetopus looked to where the talon came from and saw EightEight.
The Sotoraggian yelled, "Tiamat, get the rocks off you! Kevin, help her do so! Ben- whatever you're calling this form, attack the Cyber Squids!" Kevin nodded, putting the badge away as the two water-borne creatures nodded. Tiamat attempted to back away from the horde, but they swarmed her. The talon was knocked out of the machine and was pulled into the rushing swarm, but it was caught by one of the Vicetopus's legs (tentacles, same same).
Tiamat slashed a claw at a machine, breaking the glass, but the orange liquid quickly surrounded her claw as EightEight snatched her talon from the Vicetopus. The Volann screeched as the Vicetopus threw a tentacle forward and the orange fully hardened around her hand. EightEight surged and smashed the top console of a bot as the Vicetopus came closer and the tentacle pulled away a machine. The horde screamed as Tiamat dashed away, the swarm refocusing their efforts to EightEight and the Vicetopus.
Tiamat came to the lakebed, near the pile of rocks formed from the orange liquid, soon joined by Kevin. The two started chipping away the rocks which hardened around her scales and claws.
EightEight slashed at the sharp, thin tentacles thrashing around her. The slashed off tentacles drifted down to the lakebed as the Vicetopus and EightEight continued to deactivate the Cyber Squids.
Soon, the last Cyber Squid became lifeless and the horde of broken machines gathered amidst the sand and rocks and machine guts. Most of the stones were now off of Tiamat, but there were still a few stuck to her scales.
EightEight and the Vietopus swam up to Kevin and Tiamat as they tried to get the last bits of rock off of her. The two looked at the Sotoraggian as she motioned to the surface. Tiamat and Kevin looked at each other. EightEight surged up, followed by Tiamat, then Kevin, and finally the Vicetopus.
As Tiamat broke the surface, the Omnitrix began to beep and transformed Gwen back to normal. EightEight stared at her as Gwen's body was suddenly soaked and Kevin popped his head out of the water. He shook his head, water flicking off of his hair as the Piscciss Volann features disappeared from his body. Gwen and Kevin suddenly chirped as the Vicetopus lifted his head out of the water, the other two humans now on top of his head.
From the collar around the Vicetops's neck, Psychobos commented, "That was… dear Celestialsapiens."
"Agreed," EightEight gurgled.
-(…)-
They had gone straight back to the Dark Eagle, mainly due to the fact Gwen and Kevin's clothes were now wet. Psychobos deactivated the Nemetrix's Lifeform lock once they were out of the water, then disconnected while they were heading back. Ben decided on calling his Vicetopus form 'Trust' (much to EightEight's confusion).
At the moment, the night painted the sky with navy blue and white specks. As usual at this point, Psychobos wasn't asleep yet, and neither was Ben, while everyone else slept. The Nemetrix wielder was almost looking at the Cerebrocrustacean expectantly, like he was waiting for something. Psychobos knew what Ben was wondering, if the human would be allowed to go with the crab-like when the road-trip was over.
He finally made a decision. Psychobos looked at Ben, who was already looking at him. "If you wish, once this summer break ends, you are free to go with me."
Psychobos blinked when Ben suddenly tackled him. The Cerebrocrustacean blinked once more before putting a claw to Ben's back as the child whispered, "Thank you…"
I only have one more chapter to write for this part of the OSAP timeline, but getting the motivation to write it is hard. :(