A/N: Greetings all, and… what's this?! Another multi-parter? So soon? Indeed, it seems that the length of Omniverse episodes continues to allude me when it comes to adapting them into chapters. Something tells me if I had an extra day off from work, I'd probably be able to fit it all into one chapter, but as it stands right now, that isn't the case. Ah well, at least it's only a two-parter this time. And in hindsight, this actually works better with what I had planned anyway. So, with that, I present you with the first part of a familiar episode with a brand-new spin! This is…
Chapter 22: A Jolt from the Past, Part 1
…..
Kevin wasn't exactly sure what to make of the situation he was about to find himself in. On the one hand, this would be the first time in a LONG time where he and Gwen would be going out on patrol without Ben. Which was understandable; his best friend had a big date tonight with Yang, so that was cool. But what took him by surprise was that Team JNPR had actively wanted to come along. Not even Ruby, or Blake, or any of his other teammates that were currently riding in his car, just Team JNPR. …Oh, and also Rook, but Kevin was still wondering if he even counted as a team member. 'It's weird, he's been on two big missions with our group since we got back, but he's not even officially on the squad. Kinda odd.'
He pushed that thought away, though, as he saw the DX Mark 10 come rolling down the street, ready to pass them by. Kevin smiled and waved to them. "Say hi to the love birds, guys." he told the occupants of his car. "Somethin' tells me ya won't be seein' THEM for a while."
Penny, Ilia, Sun and Neptune all perked up and waved to the couple, with Penny reaching her arm out the window to do so. "OOH! Salutations, Ben and Yang!" Right as the black sports car passed them, Penny suddenly stood up and stuck her whole body out the widow to shout to them; "I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN ON YOUR DATE!"
"Gah! Penny, get back in here!" Ilia pulled on Penny's skirt and got the redheaded android back in the car, the other girl blinking in confusion. "You could get in trouble if any police officer saw you do that!"
Penny immediately bowed her head. "Oh, my apologies. I probably would've been fine if I had fallen out, though."
Sitting next to Ilia, Neptune sent her a raised brow. "Uh, not really the point there, Penny. If any officer saw you standing out the window and without a seatbelt, Kev would probably get pulled over and get a ticket."
"Ha! And you think I'd let something like THAT stop me?" Kevin laughed before pointing to the glove compartment. "Sun, open that up, please."
Sun's face scrunched up a bit, but nevertheless, he reached out and opened the glove box… revealing a whole bunch of tickets. Everyone let out a gasp at the sight as Sun pulled every one of the out. "Kevin, DUDE! These… these are a CRAP-TON of tickets!" The monkey boy's jaw dropped at the fines on said tickets. "And they're all over three-hundred dollars! Illegal parking, speeding, expired inspection—"
"That one was a mistake, by the way." Kevin pointed out.
"Kevin, I can't believe you!" Ilia scolded. "How in the heck could you just accumulate all of these tickets without paying for them?! Does Gwen know about this?!"
"Oh yeah, she does." Kevin nodded. "She's chewed me out a couple times for it, but hey, if it's any consolation, all of those tickets are over two years old."
Sun checked the dates on them and was surprised to see the Osmosian was speaking the truth. "Huh, whaddya know, he's right…" He sent Kevin a questioning glance all the same. "Still, that doesn't really excuse you from all this, ya know."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I paid all those off… I think. Anyways, we're here!" Kevin pulled up next to Ben's house… though he could've sworn that he had seen someone else standing near the house as he stopped. A woman, maybe? But the moment he blinked, the sidewalk was clear, with no one else to be seen. 'Hm, maybe it's my imagination…' The Osmosian set his eyes forward just in time to see the Proto-TRUK come flying down from the sky in its ship mode before converting into it's "U-Haul" mode as Kevin jokingly referred to it in his head. "Ah, and there's Rook, too! Alright, everybody out… and have fun on your playdate!"
The four groaned at Kevin's "joke" as they got out, with Sun facing Neptune the moment he did. "You remember to bring the game?"
"Oh, you bet your ASS I did!" Neptune lifted up the UNO box with resolve, determination etched across his face. "I swear, I'm gonna beat Blake if it's the last thing I do!"
"That's the spirit, Neptune!" Penny cheered. "Best of luck to you!" The android shifted her gaze to her chameleon girl friend with a wide grin. "And what about you, Ilia? What do you plan on doing?"
Ilia could only give a shrug. "Eh, not too sure, really. Maybe watch a movie with Team CFVY or something…." However, she trailed off and her eyes widened when the back of the Proto-TRUK opened up… revealing a certain red alien who she wasn't expecting to be there. "SWIFT?!"
Swift smiled brightly as she, along with Helen, surprisingly enough, jumped out the back of the truck. She spread her arms out and rushed to her friend. "Hey, Freckles! Good to see ya!" She gave Ilia a small hug, which was lightly reciprocated before both girls separated. "Surprised to see me, huh?"
"To say the least! Hey, how's your new job going?"
Swift sighed and put her hands to her hips. "Well, second day on the job and things are already kinda crazy. Mr. Baumann's a… tough but fair boss, I'll put it like that. He's a good man, though."
"Good to hear." Ilia nodded before setting her sights on Helen. "And what're you doing here, Helen? Didn't think we'd be seeing you here."
Helen gave a chuckle as she jerked her thumb over to the cab of the truck, along with Rook, who was sitting behind the wheel. "Well, honestly I wasn't planning on coming, but since Slim over there is going out on patrol with the rest of the team, someone has to keep an eye on Swift in the meantime." She crossed her arms and smirked to the Aerophibian hybrid. "And considering that I'm pretty much the only one on my squad who actually LIKES Swift, I happily volunteered."
Swift couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. "I STILL have no idea what Manny's problem is with me, seriously."
"Oh, it's okay." Helen reassured. "Manny just has… MANY trust issues. But hey, at least Alan's just indifferent to you, so that's automatically better." It was then that she saw Neptune, who had actually been looking at her from the sidelines all the while. She smiled and gave him a little wave. "Hi, Neptune!"
The blue-haired boy's cheeks flushed and he shakingly waved back, stammering a little as he spoke. "O-Oh, hi, Helen! G-Good to see you, a-as always." Inside his mind, though, Neptune was brow beating himself for stumbling. 'Damn it, man, show some freaking SPINE! She's a cute girl, not a teacher or anything!'
Sun cleared his throat and addressed everyone. "Ahem, well, now that we're all here, why don't we get this little get together started, huh?"
"Ooh, yes, yes!" Penny agreed, jumping up and down in excitement. "I have been eager to learn to play more Earth games with the others! Let's go!"
With that, the six teens all went up to the Tennyson household, leaving Kevin and Rook behind. The Osmosian stuck his head out his window and greeted Rook with a wave. "Yo, Rook! You ready for the big stake out tonight?"
"Indeed, I am, Kevin." Rook affirmed. "Though I believe it would be more accurate to call it a surveillance of the whole town than a "stake out"."
Kevin grinned sheepishly at that. "Oh, uh… actually I was kinda hoping to confuse you there. Wanted to make sure what kind of "stake" I was referring to. Wouldn't want you to confuse the patrol for an Earth steak."
"Ah, I see." Rook nodded with a grin. "Well, worry not, Kevin. I have made sure to familiarize myself with several Earthly confectionaries once I arrived here. So I definitely know the difference between the two."
"Good to know…" Kevin smirked and pointed toward the Proto-TRUK. "But heh… I bet ya send all the ladies screamin' when ya pull up in your ride, huh?"
"Earth females are not afraid of my vehicle." Rook answered, his smile unrelenting. "But they probably should be…" With a flick of a switch and a facepalm from Kevin, Rook transformed the Proto-TRUK back into its ship mode, the now-winged vehicle flying up into the air so that it hovered about fifteen feet above the ground. "Now come, the others await us!"
…..
Gwen sighed contently as she stepped out of the shower and got straight to work drying her hair, making sure to wrap a towel around herself before doing so, of course. She worked her hair brush and dryer masterfully as she handled the long, damp mass of her red hair, which she had learned to deal with over the course of the years. 'Still, this would probably be a lot easier if I went with the short hair that my future-self had.'
Gwen stopped for a moment and stared at herself in the mirror, contemplating what she would look like now if she decided to actually go through with the pixie cut. After a bit of thought, however, Gwen shook her head. "Nah, I don't think I'm ready for that just yet. Maybe give it a few more years…" She went to finish her routine and dried the rest of herself off with the towel, stepping into her room as she did. Hers and her parents' rooms were the only ones that had connected bathrooms, which was very convenient, but also left her a little guilty. "Kind of wish the others didn't have to walk between their rooms and the other bathrooms…"
She shook that thought from her head as she got dressed, putting on a white undershirt with a red cardigan over top it, along with a black skirt and stockings. Finally, she pulled on her grey slip-ons and pulled her hair up into her signature ponytail, applying her make-up soon after. She smiled with satisfaction in the mirror before opening her door… only to be met by a loud shout "HI GWEN!"
"AGH!" Gwen tripped back and landed on her rear, letting out a painful groan as her eyes shifted up to see Nora standing over her, grinning from ear-to-ear. With an internal sigh, Gwen put on her best smile and greeted her. "Nora, you… you really surprised me there."
"Just wanted to make sure you were on your toes, Gwen!" Nora waved before swooping in and picking Gwen up, the Anodite slightly surprised as she was set down onto her feet. "After all, we're on patrol tonight, so we gotta expect the unexpected!"
Gwen's eyebrows rose at that. "Oh, well… that's actually a really good point. Glad you're taking initiative Nora. …But if it's at all possible, do you think we could avoid scaring me out of my wits in the future?"
Nora saluted, giving her a nod. "Sure thing, Gwen! No problem! Now c'mon! Everyone's waiting for you downstairs!" The two redheads went down the staircase and were met with the sight of the rest of Team JNPR, along with Winter and Kenny, lounging in the living room. Pyrrha was playing tug-of-war with Romulous while Ren and Jaune were telling Kenny about how their training session went, but all that was brought to a halt the moment Nora entered the room. "Hey guys! Look who's nice and clean!"
Gwen couldn't help but deadpan as all eyes were now on her, with Pyrrha greeting her first. "Oh, Gwen! We were wondering when you'd be down." Her features became determined as she stood up, balling a fist while keeping hold of the rope with her other hand to keep Rommy entertained. "Are you ready for our patrol tonight?"
"Yeah, I think I am." Gwen said with a shrug. "To be honest, my last Bellwood patrol was quite a while ago. And it's ALSO the first time that Ben's not coming in a long while."
Jaune chuckled at that. "Hehe, yeah well, considering he's on a pretty high-profile date, you really can't blame him, can ya?"
"Hmhm, no, no I can't…" Gwen set her sights over to Winter and Kenny, giving the duo a smirk. "So, Winter, Kenny… just what exactly are YOU two planning on doing for the evening, hmm?"
Kenny wore an awkward smile while Winter rolled her eyes. The teasing was starting to get relatively old, but she would concede if only to make Gwen happy. "Well, Gwendolyn, if you must know… we're watching a movie." Winter glanced to Kenny knowingly, which made him blush even more. "Kenny told me that he had a rather nice one to show me, isn't that right?"
"Heh… y-yeah, that's right!" Kenny confirmed, reaching to the coffee table to show Gwen the movie. "I've decided that I'd show Winter the entire Disney library from front to back, so of course, we're starting with Snow White."
"Oh, how nice!" Gwen clapped her hands together. "I'm sure you'll definitely like that one, Winter. It's a classic."
"Indeed, but I'm hoping to see if I can find credence to your cousin's little theory." Winter explained.
Ren raised a brow at that. "You mean the one where he said that we all basically have fairy tale equivalents in his world?" The green ninja put a hand to his chin. "I don't know, I'm still not one-hundred percent sure on that."
"Yeah, I mean, it COULD all just be a coincidence… right?" Jaune asked.
Kenny blinked in confusion. "Uh, I'm sorry, but what're you all talking about?"
"Oh, it's something that Ben noticed before we came here." Pyrrha said with a wave. "Basically, Ben thinks that everyone in Remnant seems to have a connection to fairytale characters from this world."
Gwen began counting examples on her fingers. "Yep, Ruby is Little Red Riding Hood, Weiss is Snow White, Blake is Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Yang is Goldie Locks and—"
"Wait, so Sun's name ISN'T a coincidence?" Kenny said with wide eyes.
"Well, if you go along with the theory, then no, it's not." Nora concluded before putting on a wicked grin. "All I know is that my Earth counterpart is a freaking THUNDER GOD and that is AWESOME!"
With a scratch of his head, Kenny slumped forward a bit. "Okay, I'm lost again."
A sigh escaped Jaune's lips. "To be honest, so were we before Ben explained it." He put a hand to his chest. "Apparently we're all gender-swapped from our Earth counterparts. I'm Joan of Arc…" The knight pointed to his girlfriend and his green-clad teammate. "Pyrrha is Achilles, Ren is Mulan, and Nora's supposedly—"
"THOR!" Kenny shouted, once again surprising everyone. "Holy crap, I can't believe I didn't notice that before! The red hair, the electricity powers, the freaking HAMMER! How did I MISS that?!"
Nora wore a proud expression and placed her hands to her hips. "What can I say? Sometimes greatness is only recognized when someone's told about it."
Ren furrowed his brow at that. "Nora, don't go getting a big head, please. I think the size of your head is perfect the way it is."
"Hahaha! Don't worry, Ren, I—" However, Nora cut herself off as she ran those words back in her head, specifically the "p" word. "W-Wait… did you say my head is perfect?"
The green ninja blushed a bit and gulped, trying to regain his composure as he rubbed his neck. "W-Well, uh… yeah. I can't really lie about something like that, now can I? Hehe…"
The room was silent before Nora broke out into a soft smile, moving over to Ren in a light jog to hug him. "Aw, Renny! That's one of the nicest things you've ever said to me! Well, I can promise you that my head's not gonna be getting any bigger, okay?"
As odd as that statement was, Ren couldn't lie, he was still very relieved at that. "Hah, g-good to hear." he replied as he returned the embrace. But, soon after, a couple of loud honks came from outside, with everyone's attention being drawn to the front window. Out there, they could all see Kevin and Rook standing on the sidewalk, the former reaching into his car to honk the horn. "Oh, hah, would you look at that?" Ren said with a nervous smile as Nora kept hugging him. "Kevin and Rook are here, we should go!" He got up, but Nora quickly shifted herself so that she was holding his hand, which took him off guard slightly as the duo made their way toward the door.
Jaune and Pyrrha chuckled at their friends knowingly before the redheaded warrior picked up Romulus, bringing him over to set in Winter's lap. "You'll be sure to watch after Rommy tonight, right Winter?"
"Of course, Pyrrha." Winter pat Romulus' head as the wolf pup panted happily, the sight making the woman's smile widen. "We'll have a fun time!"
"Great, thanks Winter." Jaune gave her a thumbs up before taking Pyrrha by the hand as well, the couple headed toward the door themselves. "We'll see you guys later tonight!"
With that, Gwen faced her brother and sent him a wink, giving him her own thumbs up. "And you two have fun tonight yourselves… but don't get carried away now, you hear?"
It was Kenny's turn to roll his eyes. "Oh please, with Mom and Dad lurking around the place, what the hell do you think we're gonna do? Now go on, your boyfriend's waiting for you." Gwen stuck her tongue out at her brother, making him smirk in amusement. "Heh, REAL mature, sis. We'll see you later." The two siblings waved to one another before Gwen finally went outside, leaving Kenny and Winter to themselves with Romulus. The young man took the Snow White DVD out of its case and stood up, walking over to the TV. "So, you ready for this, Winter? It's gonna be a LONG haul with this Disney marathon, just so ya know."
"Oh, I am well aware." Winter assured with an eager grin. "And I say to that; bring it on."
…..
Two and a half hours later, the patrol team found themselves sitting idly by in a relatively secluded alleyway, with Kevin's car parked in front of the Proto-TRUK. And everyone inside of those vehicles were… bored out of their skulls. Since the patrol had started, they hadn't seen much in the way of action, to say the least. The closest they came was to stopping a bunch of small aliens from munching down on a car, and even then, the little critters stopped the moment they drew their weapons. Aside from that single instance, it had basically been nothing but false alarms or misunderstandings. They still felt bad about that one alien who had cornered a smaller one… only for it to reveal that it was a baby alien whose mother was trying to give it its bottle.
"Some heroing so far, huh?" Jaune said sarcastically, propping his arm on his door while Pyrrha leaned against his shoulder. "We've had NOTHING over the course of this whole night!"
"Well, that's not entirely true." Pyrrha reminded. "At least Bellwood is safe from… car-eating aliens." The Invincible Girl sighed in utter boredom. "…Alright, I concede to your point, Jaune, this is dull."
Gwen turned around in the front seat and looked to the group sympathetically. "Well, sometimes that's just how patrol is. Sometimes you get lots of action, other times the city is actually pretty peaceful."
"UUUUGH! At this point, I'm just WISHING for something to happen!" Nora groaned, pressing her forehead against her window. "I have a need to beat up bad guys, Gwen, or else I'm gonna go STIR CRAZY!" The entire car let out several more sighs before Nora glanced up to the front window, noticing a rather skinny guy with black hair walk in front of them. The dude had one long bang covering his right eye with an orange streak through it, and he seemed to be talking on a phone. "Hey, some random dude! Maybe we can arrest him for jaywalking!"
With a roll of his eyes, Kevin scoffed. "Nora, please, we know you're bored, but we can't just… wait." The Osmosian set his eyes back onto the young man… and began to notice something VERY off. His phone was SUPER high-tech, and it was connected to a large, orange battery pack that he had strapped to his back, with a bright yellow tube being the connector. "Hold up, that phone… that's Level 6 tech he's got on him!"
The entire car snapped to attention immediately, with Gwen giving her boyfriend a serious face. "You're sure?"
"Positive." Kevin nodded. "Hell, that sorta phone isn't supposed to even WORK on Earth."
At that moment, Rook spoke up from the Proto-TRUK, calling in over the commlink in Kevin's car. "Kevin, you saw that, correct?"
Kevin reached for the comm and spoke into it. "Sure did, Rook, and lemme tell ya, it is NOT normal."
"I had a feeling. Something tells me that battery pack is what is powering his device."
Just then, Ren jumped into the conversation as well, having tagged along in the Proto-TRUK. "So, what should we do? Tail him?"
"Probably, but we shouldn't try to ALL follow him at once." Gwen stated, taking off her seatbelt. "Rook, you, Ren and Kevin stay here on standby with the vehicles should things get iffy. Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, you come with me. We're gonna follow this guy and see what he does."
"WOO! Finally, something interesting!" Nora cheered as she and her teammates followed Gwen out of the car.
Jaune gave Nora a stern gaze. "Yeah, but remember, stealth is important in this situation. We can't risk getting caught or else he'll try to get away." The Pink Dynamo's eyes widened before smiling to her leader, making a zipper motion over her mouth to indicate that her lips were sealed. "Good. Now c'mon, let's move."
With that, the group of four began to sneakily follow the skinny punk, who made a turn down a narrow alley and away from prying eyes. Still, the team followed, and they were able to pick up a part of his conversation. "I don't care WHAT she says, dude, I ain't goin' back!" there was a pause as they saw his expression get angrier. "Oh yeah? Well you tell HER I'm part of something big!"
Pyrrha couldn't help but raise a brow at that as they ducked behind a dumpster. "Something big?" she whispered. "What could that be?"
"Considering he has some high-tech stuff on him, it can't possibly be good." Gwen replied. Just then, the guy abruptly stopped, making a chill go down Gwen's spine. "Oh no… stay low."
The guy spun around and scanned the alleyway with his eyes before saying; "I'll call you back." He turned off his phone and called into the alley. "I know you're out there! You think this is my first time being tailed?" The four Omni-Hunters could feel goosebumps all over them, but still remained silent, hoping that the guy would just think he's mistaken and move on. Unfortunately, that wasn't about to happen. "Not gonna talk, huh? Well maybe THIS will get your attention!"
With a flick of his wrist, the punk pulled up his phone and it transformed into a small pistol, much to everyone's surprise. He took aim at the dumpster and fired a powerful yellow laser at the group, which Gwen was quick to act upon. "NO!" She brought up an energy field around her that blocked the blast and protected them from the exploding dumpster, though now, their cover was blown.
"HA! Knew it!" the punk pointed to them angrily. "You're the Omni-Hunters!"
"How the heck did you even KNOW we were following you?!" Nora shouted. "We made sure to stay as quiet as possible!"
The young man simply laughed and shrugged. "Easy, because I'm not stupid." He began to back out of the alley way with his gun still at the ready. "But I don't have time for chit-chat. I've got someplace to be. Later, losers!"
"Stop!" Gwen brought down the energy sphere and she and the others quicky began their pursuit. "After him!" She brought up her Plumber's badge and called for back-up as she ran. "Kevin, the guy knew we were after him! Bring the vehicles around to our position, stat!"
The team followed the ruffian down the street a little ways before he ducked into yet another alley. The Omni-Hunters went to go in after him… but were immediately met with the sight of bright headlights approaching them at high speeds. "Watch out!" Pyrrha pulled Jaune out of the way as Nora did the same with Gwen, letting the delinquent rush out of the alley in a large, orange truck with big wheels. "Hah… well, he seems eager to get away."
Nora grinned eagerly. "Which means we've got ourselves a CHASE!" She slammed the head of her hammer on the ground and hopped on it before pulling the trigger, sending her flying after the truck in a laughing frenzy. "AHAHAHA! Finally, some ACTION!"
As they watched their friend fly off into the distance Kevin's car pulled up on the side of the road, the Osmosian sticking his head out as he watched Nora fly off. "Uh… did I miss something?"
"Long story short, the guy tried to run us over and Nora's going after him." Jaune said as he and Pyrrha made their way to the muscle car. "Now c'mon, we've gotta—Gwen?!" The blonde knight called after the young magic-user as she sprinted down the street in the direction that both Nora and the punk went. "Where are you going?!"
"Hey, someone has to make sure that those two don't wreck anything, right?!" Gwen called back as she shifted into her Anodite mode and flew right into the sky. "Now come on! We've got a criminal to catch!"
With that, the team sped off down the street, staying in pursuit of the truck as it burst through several lanes of nighttime traffic. However, after keeping pace by running and jumping across several roof tops, Nora launched herself at the vehicle yet again as it blew through an intersection, causing several cars to suddenly serve to a stop. The Pink Dynamo careened right down to the truck and landed on its bed, making the guy scream and snap his head back around to her. "AH! I thought I lost you!"
"Well, ya thought wrong!" Nora lifted her hammer, preparing to slam it down on him… as gently as she could since he didn't have an Aura to protect him. "You're causing a LOT of dangerous stuff here, mister, so—" HONK-HONK! Both Nora and the punk whipped their heads around in time to see that they were on a collision course with a tractor trailer, causing them both to scream while the young delinquent swerved harshly. Unfortunately, this caused Nora to be sent flying out of the car, her body smashing into a nearby building.
"HA! Gotcha, bitch!" the boy shouted, making Nora grit her teeth.
"Okay, screw holding back, I am SO gonna break your legs!" she screamed after him.
"Nora!" The redhead whipped her head around to see Ren and Rook come and pull up next to her, the green ninja getting out to help her out of the wall. "Are you alright?"
The hyper girl groaned as her best friend helped her, giving a sneer in the punk's direction. "Yeah… most that's wounded is my pride." She quickly steadied herself on her own two feet and picked up her hammer, her face etched with determination. "Now come on! I gotta get back at that guy for calling me a bitch!"
"…He did what?" Ren's expression became dangerously intense at that, though at the same time, he kept his calm demeanor about him, which was very chilling. And the fact that he got this way when Nora mentioned what the guy called her made her stomach flutter as well. "Right, let's get after him." Ren stepped back to the Proto-TRUK while Nora leapt up onto its roof, giggling happily all the while. "Rook, let's get this thing airborne."
Rook nodded and reached for the controls. "Gladly." With a pull of a lever, the Proto-TRUK shifted into its ship mode, flying right up into the air to pursue the fleeing truck. "Do you have a plan, Ren?"
"I do, and it involves taking out his tires…" Ren shifted his gaze down toward the ground to see the orange truck being chased down by Gwen, though the delinquent kept firing back at her with his laser pistol. Kevin tried to cut him off by coming around a corner, but the punk simply swerved around him at the last possible second. He also saw Pyrrha and Jaune emerge from Kevin's car and begin shooting at the vehicle, though the criminal was able to outmaneuver all of the bullets and rounds that were fired at him. "Get us close to the ground and keep on him. We'll handle the rest from there."
The Revonnahgander gave him a thumbs up. "Understood." Rook lowered themselves down toward the fleeing truck, which immediately greeted them with a flurry of blasts from the guy's pistol. Rook was able to bob and weave around these, though, but he glanced toward Ren warily. "Are you certain that you need to be this close?"
"Positive." The ninja unbuckled his seatbelt before sticking his upper body out the window, with one of his Stormflower pistols in his hand. Ren carefully aimed for the truck's tires, but was taken off guard when a stray laser blasted right at him. He went to duck, but fortunately, a grenade came flying right at the laser and intercepted it, causing an explosion of pink smoke. He smiled and gave a nod to his partner. "Thanks, Nora!"
"No problem!" Nora winked. "Now take that jerk out!"
Ren focused back down to his target. "With pleasure…" He focused back onto the tires again and reared his arm back. 'Well, here goes nothing!' With a skillful toss, Ren threw Stormflower like a boomerang, the weapon spinning in the air as it traveled down to its target. The green, bladed pistol sliced through the right-side tires with ease, causing the truck to start to lose its grip on the road. The Proto-TRUK zoomed ahead and Ren caught the returning Stormflower, his sights going back to his best friend. "Now, Nora!"
"On it!" With a mighty leap, Nora flew right down to the truck, doing a couple midair flips to gain momentum before she came crashing into the truck's bed with her hammer. The entire back of the truck crumpled in on itself and was forced to a screeching halt, the young delinquent screaming in terror as Nora glared at him. "Hi. Missed me?"
The punk shouted and leapt right out of the ruined truck… only for Ren to come down from the sky as well and tackle him to the ground. He took a pair of energy cuffs and forced the guy's hands behind his back, shackling them together. "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and WILL be used against you in a court of intergalactic law."
Nora threw her arms up as Gwen and the others came to a stop, with the Proto-TRUK landing not too far away. "Woo-hoo! That. Was. AMAZING!" She ran up and gave Ren a big hug. "And would you look at you! Diving outta the sky to bring the bad guy down! Ooh, you are on the BALL tonight, Renny!"
Once more, Ren blushed a bit as their friends came over, the ninja sheepishly chuckling a little. "Hehe… w-what can I say? I don't like it when my friends are insulted." If anything, that only made the hug tighten just a little more.
However, if there was one person who wasn't enjoying this, it was the punk. "Ugh, quit with the love-fest, will ya? Makes me sick—AGH!" And just like that, Nora kicked the guy in his knee, sending him tumbling to the ground.
"NORA!" Gwen immediately scolded. "What was that for?!"
The hyper redhead was quick with her reasoning. "Well, one; he tossed me off his truck. Two; he called me a bitch. And three; he should REALLY mind his own business!"
"HA! Shows what you know!" the punk scowled from the ground as he sat himself up, though Rook was quick to hold him still. "Because that's exactly what I was doing! But then you guys decided to tail me and get into MY business! I wasn't doing anything!"
Jaune placed his hands on his hips, giving the criminal an accusatory glare. "Uh, yeah, because it's our JOB to pursue suspicious characters like you." He pointed to the guy's battery pack and weapon. "And besides, with THAT thing, you weren't exactly being inconspicuous."
Pyrrha crossed her arms, her head held high. "Also, you shot duly-deputized Plumbers. I'd hardly call THAT "doing anything"."
Kevin came up and grabbed the guy by his shirt, bringing him face to face with a hard glare. "You've got Level 6 alien tech on you, man. Stuff like that shouldn't even BE on Earth." He grabbed the weapon and inspected it. "A two-in-one comm-pistol. Pretty nice… but also illegal. Where'd ya get it?"
The young punk smirked and scoffed. "Ha! You guys wouldn't even last a minute against MY boss… and you'd last even LESS against HIS boss!"
Gwen pursed her lips at that. "Hm, whoever he's working for, it sounds like they've got a pretty high chain of command…" However, she trailed off when she heard a loud buzzing noise coming from the truck. Her sights moved over to it, as did everyone else's when they heard the noise as well. "Uh, I guess everyone hears that, right?"
"That is not a typical Earth combustion engine." Rook noted, passing the punk off to Jaune as he and Kevin with over to it.
"Maybe a hybrid?" the raven-haired teen guessed.
"Th-There's nothing in there!" the delinquent shouted in a panic, his face full of fear. "I-I swear, just don't open it!"
The whole group sent him a deadpan look before Kevin shook his head. "Yeah… you're not exactly helping your case, dude. I'm gonna crack it open." Kevin popped open the hood… and his eyes widened in shock. Rather than a typical engine, this truck had a large, glowing yellow pod in its place… and it was cracked open. Several arcs of electricity shot out of the pod before it burst right open in a flash of yellow light, making everyone shout and duck as a powerful bolt of lightning shot out all over the place. The punk managed to escape Jaune's grasp and tried to crawl away, only for the lighting to cut him off.
"What's going on?!" Pyrrha exclaimed, huddling up to Jaune at the same time. However, almost immediately, her question was answered when the lightning suddenly stopped… and transformed into a short, diminutive creature.
The being itself was about two feet tall and almost entirely black, save for a yellow lightning bolt pattern that went down both its back and its chest. Its stubby arms and legs had no digits to them and its head was roughly cylindrical in shape, with a flat silver top that had a rounded nub in the very center. It had piercing, yellow eyes and a wide, devilish grin with gnarled teeth, and the moment it materialized, it let out a loud cackle as its body sparked.
Gwen let out a gasp as her eyes bugged out, shifting back into her human form. "No… way. A MEGAWATT?!"
The Megawatt laughed in amusement as it faced the delinquent, who shrieked and tried to get away. "S-Stay back! I-I'm warning—GYAH!" He didn't get far before the Megawatt shot toward him, transforming itself into an arc of lightning to rip the straps off the guy's battery pack, sending it clattering to the pavement. The Megawatt then struck the pack and it exploded in a bright display of lightning… before yet another Megawatt emerged from that.
"There's two of them?!" Gwen's hands went to her head, gripping at her hair as she tried to process all this. "What in the world are Megawatts doing in Bellwood?!"
"Ahem!" The Anodite whipped her head around and met eyes with Team JNPR, who were all staring at her in utter bafflement. "Uh, Gwen, not to interrupt your moment here, but a little explanation would be nice." Jaune implored.
Gwen blinked, only realizing now that she had never told them about these creatures. "O-Oh, right, sorry. These things are called Megawatts—"
"Nosedeenians, Gwen." Kevin corrected. "That's what they're technically—" he abruptly stopped when Gwen shot him the stink eye, making him raise his hands in surrender. "Okay, never mind, you have the floor."
"THANK you, honey." Gwen smiled victoriously as the Megawatts began to buzz around the whole block, traveling to-and-fro along the powerlines. "In any case, Ben and I dealt with these little guys a number of times when we were kids. They're crafty, like causing trouble, and—"
"ARE SO STINKING CUTE!" Nora shouted as one of the Megawatts stopped and landed next to her. Immediately, it was scooped right up into her arms, letting out a surprised cry as she hugged it close to her. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, OH MY GOSH! AH! You little guys have to be the cutest things I've ever freaking SEEN! Gwen, can we keep one?! Can we, can we, can we—EEEEEEEE!" All of a sudden, the Megawatt turned into pure electricity once again and, as a result, gave Nora an intense shock. Of course, she was able to absorb most of it through her Semblance, but by the end, her hair was sticking up on end and she was rather charred, her eyes having dilated to the size of peas. "Hahahaha… you little rapscallions!" She fell to the ground as stiff as a board, leaving the others to stare in shock.
"…I don't know if I expected anything different, really." Jaune commented.
As the two Megawatts began to deliver electric shocks the young punk, Rook took out his Proto-Tool and transformed it into blade form, ready to engage. "I have never faced a Nosedeenian before. Any advice?" Just as the two electric aliens finished up with the punk, though, they shifted their attention to Rook… and immediately shifted into electricity and flowed right into his Proto-Tool, giving HIM a powerful zap.
Kevin deadpanned and crossed his arms. "Yeah, trying to avoid THAT would be a good starting point."
"That much is obvious." Ren concurred as he helped Nora off the ground. "So, what do we do about these things?"
Just as he asked that, however, the Megawatts reemerged on top of the power wires and gazed down to the group… only to wave their hands and stick their tongues out tauntingly. With that, they entered the wires again and began making their way east to the other end of town. "Don't let them get away!" Gwen shouted as she and Kevin began sprinting toward the former's car. "If we let them run lose, there's no TELLING what kind of trouble they could get into!"
Ren and Pyrrha each took the still-dazed Nora by each arm and brought her to the Osmosian's car, the three piling right in after their friends before the car drove off right down the street. As they drove away, though, the young thug stood up and took a quick glance around, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to slink away… only to back up right into something hard and metallic. He slowly turned his head to see Jaune, the taller boy looming right over him with his shield at the ready. The punk didn't even get to utter a word as Jaune bashed him over the head, knocking him out handily. "Heh, night-night."
"Excellent work, Jaune." Rook commented as he ushered him toward the Proto-TRUK. "Now come and bring him aboard quickly, or else we'll lose the others!"
…..
The group of Omni-Hunters followed the Megawatts intently, the six making sure to keep the small aliens in sight as they pursued them down the power lines. As they drove, however, Pyrrha decided to ask Gwen more about the little creatures. "So, Gwen, are these Megawatts… aliens?"
"They are, though we didn't know that at first." Gwen explained. "Back on that famous road trip that started this whole thing, grandpa took Ben and I on a little excursion to a place called Sparksville. A TOTAL tourist attraction with over-sized versions of practically everything."
"Hm, sounds like a fun place." Ren commented.
"Well, kind of, but not really." Gwen shrugged. "Not much to do when you're a kid with no interest in that kind of stuff." She shook her head to get herself back on track. "Anyways, one of these attractions was a giant rubber band ball that actually had all of these creatures trapped inside. And well… Ben decided to show off and go Four Arms to juggle the ball around, but that ended up freeing the Megawatts, sending them on a practical joke rampage that nearly destroyed the entire town." She sent the group a worried gaze. "So you can probably guess why we need to stop them."
"Hm, right." Pyrrha nodded. "Wouldn't want Bellwood to befall the same fate." The Invincible Girl brightened up a bit, however. "Well, fortunately, we just happen to have someone who can deal with electricity rather well! Right, Nora? …Nora?"
Though she heard her name being repeated to her, Nora attention wasn't on her friend. Rather, her sights were set out her passenger-side window, watching as the bolts of electricity that were the Megawatts traveled across the power lines. She had been focused on them for pretty much the entirety of the chase and she noticed that something was… a bit off. Namely the fact that the little creatures could've been going so much faster. They could have out-run them by now, but every time it seemed they'd be able to do so, they stopped and gave them time to catch up, watching intently before moving on. It was strange, to say the least.
"Something's weird here, guys." Nora muttered, turning her head back to the others. "I think… I think the Megawatts are letting us keep pace with them."
This took the entire group by surprise, namely Gwen. "You think so, Nora? What makes you say that?"
Nora gave her fellow redhead a nod. "Well, you must know how fast electricity travels, right?" Gwen nodded back to her, ushering her to continue. "Okay, then let's think about that. If the Megawatts could outrun us at any point they want… then why haven't they?"
Kevin gave a shrug. "I dunno, maybe they want to pull another prank on us or somethin'?"
"Well, maybe." However, Nora shook her head. "But I think something's up here. It's almost like they WANT us to follow them… wherever they're headed."
Ren set a hand to Nora's shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile. "Well, wherever they're taking us, I can promise you that we'll get to the bottom of whatever's going on, okay, Nora?"
A bright smile came to Nora's face as she put her own hand over Ren's. "Thanks, Renny. I hope we can find out what's happening."
Pyrrha tilted her head so that she could see herself in the rearview, hoping that Kevin could as well. "So, Kevin, just where ARE the Megawatts leading us to?"
"As far as I can tell…" Kevin pressed a few buttons on his center console and brought up a holographic map of Bellwood, with a small red dot indicating where they were. "I'm thinking that the little guys are taking us to the water port on the river." He furrowed his brow in suspicion. "Bit of a random place to go since I'm pretty sure Nosedeenians don't take to water all that well."
"Well, whatever's going on, let's make sure to stay on our toes." Gwen stated. "After all, the fact that one of those things was actually in that guy's engine, I'm thinking that we might be closing in on the big thing that he's a part of…"
A few more minutes passed before the gang finally made it to the water port, with the two Megawatts bolting down to the storage houses near the docks. Nora and the others immediately sprinted out of Kevin's car and went to the steps that led down to the port itself, watching as the Megawatts stopped near one of the storage houses. They smiled up to Nora in particular and pointed at the building before bolting in through the door, leaving her to purse her lips in thought. "Hm… so THAT'S where they want us to go, huh?"
"Nora? What do you mean?" The group craned their heads around to see Jaune and Rook approaching, the blonde knight wearing a questioning face. "Did you guys see where the Megawatts went?"
"I am surprised that we managed to keep up with them in the first place." Rook remarked. "Nosedeenians are well known for their speed."
"Hm, exactly what Nora deduced, Rook." Gwen smiled knowingly over to Nora, who appeared to be quite proud of herself on that one. "She noticed that the Megawatts seemed to be intentionally letting us follow them to this spot."
"Really?" Jaune asked. "And why's that?"
Nora gave him a shrug. "Not sure, fearless leader… but I think we're about to find out…"
With that, the group traveled down to the port and went up to the building that the Megawatts went into. They went to the front door and Rook unlocked it with his Proto-Tool before they all headed inside… though they were all blissfully unaware that they were being watched. Because, crouching on top of one of the other storage houses, was a rather burly man in his mid-forties with heavy black eye paint and a long, black mohawk. He also had a full handlebar mustache and a matching goatee, and for some reason, he was wearing black sunglasses. He wore a strange, apparatus on his upper body that had a large battery pack on the back, and covered his arms and hands in orange, metal armor with glowing yellow pods sticking out of the shoulders.
The burly man scowled and let out a grumble as he reached into his pocket, pulling out his communicator to make a call. After the first few rings, it picked up. "Yo, big man…" he whispered in a gravelly voice.
"Ugh, Crush, bro, you're REALLY dialin' me up at a bad time, man." a voice on the other end bemoaned. "You KNOW I'm gettin' my reps in right now, right?"
"Yeah, I get that, man." Crush furrowed his brow slightly. "But ya know I wouldn't be callin' ya if this weren't important. I just saw some intruders head inside the hideout, an' I think two of 'em are Ben 10's lackeys."
"…I'll be right there."
…..
Meanwhile, the team snuck their way into the darkened building, making sure that they stayed behind any structure they could incase anyone walked in on them. What they immediately noticed, however, was the fact that there seemed to be a light emitting from the very center of the room… and the moment they saw where it was coming from, they felt their jaws drop in shock. There, towering before them, was a massive device that appeared to be a generator of some kind, one that had several pods sticking out all around it. The pods were glowing yellow, just as the truck's engine had, indicating they must've been the source of the power.
"Woah… what is that?" Jaune muttered.
"A Class 8 Electro-Generator." Kevin replied with a serious expression. "Some extremely high-tech alien stuff. This thing shouldn't even BE on Earth."
Nora scanned her eyes across the generator before catching sight of the Megawatts again, the two creatures banging repeatedly on some of the pods to try and break them. She squinted her eyes at the pods, but then they widened in shock. "AH! Over there!" Nora whispered harshly as she pointed. "Inside those pods!"
The group set their focus on the pods… and were horrified to see that the yellow energy inside of them was actually more Megawatts, the creatures in very visible pain. Many of them were beating against the glass to try and break free, but to no avail. Pyrrha gasped, her hand covering her mouth. "Oh my gosh, this… who would do something like this?!"
Gwen's lips turned up into a snarl. "It's despicable is what it is! Whoever's done this is draining those poor Megawatts so that they can power that thing!"
"More accurately, someone has set up a factory that uses them as a power source." Rook clarified, having noticed many of the different parts and assembly lines around the place. "We need to find a way to—wait." Rook's ears perked up as he heard footsteps approaching from above. "Someone is coming. Quick, fall back."
The Omni-Hunters briskly fell behind their hiding place as whoever it was came walking out on the catwalk above. He was a tall, well-built man in his late-twenties who had heavy black eyeliner, a black muscle shirt with red splotches, and a set of armor over his chest and arms that had pods on the shoulders that resembled the same ones on the generator. Most prominently of all, though, was that he had a white mohawk. "Hey! Two of the batteries got out!" The guy jumped off of the catwalk and then activated his large gauntlets, blasting out a yellow energy beam at the Megawatts. Without any effort at all, the beam pulled the Megawatts to him and they were sucked right up into the palms of his gauntlets before being channeled into the pods on his shoulders.
The entire group gave a soft gasp, with Ren narrowing his eyes. "So, THAT'S how they're capturing the Megawatts." His ears perked up at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind them, and he could tell that everyone else had picked up on that as well. "We'd better do something about this…"
"Yeah… and we should do it RIGHT NOW!" In a split second, Jaune suddenly spun around and delivered a strong kick to the legs of the man sneaking up on them, who was actually another guy with a red mohawk and the same gauntlets as the other guy. The man was forced down to his knees, but Jaune quickly followed up by bringing up his shield, the blaster in its tip popping out before he blasted the goon away into the opposite wall.
"Alright, time for subtly is over!" Kevin said as he absorbed the concrete floor. "C'mon guys, let's—" VRRMMM! Before any of them could do anything else, however, the white mohawked guy from before came up from behind them and activated his energy gauntlets, trapping him, Gwen and Rook in an energy field. "Oh… great."
"GUYS!" Nora shifted Magnhild into its grenade launcher form and took aim. "Hold on, we'll get you outta—" VRRMMM! "Oh, COME ON!" Before Team JNPR new it, they too were trapped inside of an energy field, this once courtesy of a different thug who appeared to be somewhat older than the others. He had just came in through the front door and the gang immediately noticed his big mustache and goatee. Nora narrowed her eyes at him as he approached. "Oh, lemme guess, YOU'RE the guy in charge here, Muttonchops?"
"Heh, not exactly, chicky." The man chortled before craning his head over to one of the garage doors… which had just been opened up by a rather tall figure who was cast in shadow. "That… would be him."
The Omni-Hunters set their eyes on the man… and were taken aback by the sight of him. He was built like an athlete; tall, broad chest and shoulders, well-toned. He wore a black muscle shirt with a stylized skull in the center of it and he had several tattoos going up and down his arms and the back of his neck. There were also black sleeves on his elbows and his hands were tapped up as well. His pants were orange, he had grey knee pads, and his black, steel-toed boots had spikes sticking out of them. The same could be said for HIS mohawk, which was styled into five, individual orange spikes. Most noticeable of all, however, was that his face was entirely panted over with a black and white skull design, making him appear MUCH more intimidating.
The man grumbled as he stepped in, allowing the garage door to fall behind him. "Alright, Crush, this'd better be worth interruptin' my work out for—LEVIN?!"
Kevin's eyes widened in shock as well. "FISTRICK?!"
"What're YOU doin' here?!" both asked on another at the same time.
Gwen sighed and shook her head. "Kevin, why aren't I surprised that you know this guy?"
The spike-haired man, now known as "Fistrick" cracked his knuckles as he scowled at Kevin. "The hell're you doin' here, Levin? I thought I said I never wanted to see you again after that deal on Peptos X went belly-up!"
Kevin wore a sly grin at that. "Hey, c'mon man, it wasn't THAT bad, was it?"
Fistrick deadpanned at Kevin. "Bro, the whole planet BLEW UP."
"…Okay, so maybe is WAS that bad, but hey, at least everybody lived and the Gourmands found a new home pretty quickly. AND they still made a meal out of the OTHER planet!"
"Does it LOOK like I care?" Fistrick glared at Kevin maliciously. "You're part of the reason why I had to start from scratch, so I'm REALLY kinda pissed at ya for that…" However, a smile returned to Fistrick's face, if one that had bad intentions behind it. "That said, I managed to rebuild my rep pretty good since then, so I'll let ya live long enough to see my operation in action… bro."
Kevin groaned and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, if there's one thing I DIDN'T miss, it was that vocal tick, bro." He eyed the large generator with intrigue. "But, uh… just what IS your operation here, anyway? Seems like ya got some high-tech stuff here… the kinda stuff that doesn't exactly fall off the back of a truck."
Pyrrha crossed her arms and glowered at Fistrick accusingly. "And I'm sure whoever you stole it all from isn't too happy about it going missing."
Fistrick merely chuckled and shook his head. "Ah, he don't care anymore, bro."
"So, you steal alien tech and use alien hostages to charge it." Ren deduced.
"Correctomundo!" Fistrick grinned and pointed to the green ninja. "What can I say? Makin' a living offa' other's success is just good business."
With her teeth grit and her anger skyrocketing, Nora began to bang her fists on the energy field, all to no avail. "Do you KNOW how utterly JERKISH that is?! Let the Megawatts go!"
"No can do, little lady-bro." Fistrick denied. "See, I've got a good thing goin' here. One alien makes this stuff, another powers it." He jabbed a thumb to his chest. "I mass produce it, and then sell it to the highest bidder." Fistrick gave a shrug. "It's just good business, bro."
"I see." Rook nodded before pulling out a small device from one of his Proto-Tech armor's pouches. "Well, then I suppose there is only one option left; and that is to stop you." With a press of a button, Rook activated the device and it sent out a powerful wave that disabled both energy shields, freeing the Omni-Hunters all at once.
"WHAT THE?!" Fistrick shouted.
"Haha, alright!" Kevin reached into his pockets and pulled out an Earth Dust crystal, absorbing the material into his arms before smashing his fists together, activating the Dust's effects. "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" The Osmosian landed on the ground with a might THWOOM, smashing his fists into the concrete with at full force. This, combined with the Dust's effects, made the whole ground come undone and sent a wave of dirt and earth at the group of hooligans, sending them flying upon impact.
"ARGH!" Fistrick flipped in midair and landed in a sliding crouch, letting out a growl with his lips in a snarl. "What the hell?! How'd you get out?!"
Rook held up the small device as he and the others stood up. "An energy field disruptor. Plumber standard issue." He faced the group and gave them a nod. "I believe the Earth term is "go acorns"."
The teens all wore deadpan expression at that, but Gwen shook her head. "It's "go nuts", Rook, but you WERE close." Her hands began to light up with energy and she called to her comrades; "But he's still right, guys! Let's put a stop to this, now!"
Jaune pulled out Crocea Mors, putting the blade into its greatsword mode as the rest of his team prepped their own weapons. "You heard the lady, guys! Let's go!"
"Pheh, you think you can take US on, bro?!" Fistrick challenged before addressing his group of thugs. "Crush! Hoodlum! Vandal! Put these twerps outta their misery while I put on my gear!"
"You got it, kid!" Crush responded, with the red and white mohawked guys flanking either side of him. "You heard the man, let's take these chumps down!"
"GLADLY!" The red mohawked guy, Hoodlum, rushed forward and went straight for Jaune, his eyes narrowing in contempt. "You're gonna wish you hadn't thrown me through that wall, ya little brat!"
Jaune smirked in amusement. "Heh, I'm the brat, huh?" He charged forward with a battle cry and met Hoodlum head-on, swinging his sword at the man on his right side. However, Hoodlum actually caught Crocea Mors with his arm before wrapping the armored appendage around it, going to snap it in half. Fortunately, Jaune knew what to do. He moved into the motion instead of against it, pushing Hoodlum to the floor in the process of freeing his blade.
Hoodlum managed to roll up to his feet, though, slamming the ground with one of his fists. "Lucky break there, kid!" He raised his arm up and his palm began to light up. "But let's see how you like THIS shock to your syst—" PING! "AUGH!" Before he could do anything, something hard collided with Hoodlum's back, sending him face-first into the ground.
"Hah, thanks, Pyr!" Jaune smiled as he watched Pyrrha catch her rebounded shield.
"You're more than welcome!" the Invincible Girl waved back, though celebrations didn't last long as Hoodlum got right back up, now even MORE angry than he was before.
"Oh, you just made a BIG mistake, girly!" With a mighty roar, Hoodlum charged at Pyrrha with his arms outstretched, making to grab her. However, instead of diving out of the way, Pyrrha stood her ground with her xiphos at the ready. And, right as Hoodlum had closed in, that was when she took her opportunity. Pyrrha dodged the thug's attack at the very last minute, sidestepping him while also slashing her xiphos up and down the length of his right arm.
Hoodlum stopped and spun around, feeling a bit of pain in his arm, but he was fine nonetheless. However, when he went to raise that arm… it fell right back down, going completely limp. "AGH! W-What did you—"
"I disabled the joints in your armor with a couple of precise slices." Pyrrha explained with a smirk. "I think you'll find it to be completely useless now."
"You little—" Hoodlum raised his left arm and sent a blast of energy out of that, causing both Jaune and Pyrrha to dodge off to opposite sides.
The blonde knight himself noticed that he was now on Hoodlum's left side, giving him an idea. "Pyrrha! Don't stop moving! I've got a plan!"
"Understood!" Pyrrha acknowledged as she shifted Milo into its rifle mode, blasting back at Hoodlum with several shots of Fire Dust.
"Don't know what your little plan is, but it won't work!" Hoodlum assured as he fired back and forth between Jaune and Pyrrha, attempting to throw them off whatever game they had in mind. "I'm not gonna let a couple punks beat ME!"
"Again, look who's calling who the punk around here!" Jaune said as he pulled his shield off Crocea Mors, putting it on his arm and back into its blaster mode. "I think you need to reevaluate a few things, dude!" With that, he took aim and shot a round of Fire Dust from his shield blaster and, the moment it collided with the lightning, it exploded into a huge cloud of smoke and dust, completely covering the area around them.
Hoodlum coughed and hacked as he stumbled his way through the smoke, trying to get away. "Hak-hak! That was a rotten trick!" Just then, he felt a strange presence come up from behind him and he went to turn around… only to be met with a sharp slash on his left arm, which disabled his armor completely. "AUGH!"
"Yeah, but it got the job done." Jaune quipped back. "Now, Pyrrha!"
Jumping from out of the smoke, Pyrrha came charging at Hoodlum with her shield raised and Semblance at the ready, bashing into the thug in his side to send him careening through several metal crates and into yet another wall, knocking him unconscious in the process. As the smoke cleared, Pyrrha let out a cheer and immediately went to hug Jaune, which he happily reciprocated. "Haha! Jaune, your plan worked!"
"Heh, yeah, it did." Jaune nodded. "But I couldn't have pulled it off without you." The couple gave each other a quick peck on the lips before a determined smile came to Jaune's face. "Now, let's give the others a hand, huh?" Pyrrha nodded back to her boyfriend and went into the battle, where they could already see the chaos unfolding.
…..
Ren let out a shout of exertion as he slammed into the white-mohawked guy, Vandal. He had his Stormflower raised so that the blades embedded themselves into the guy's armor, but that still didn't seem to be enough to cause the armor any sort of big damage. And by the smirk on his lips, Vandal knew this. "Ha! You think you can actually HURT me with those dinky things, dude?" He took Ren by the arm and swung him around, sending him flying back. "You've got another thing comin'!"
Ren flipped back and landed in a crouch, narrowing his eyes as he raised Stormflower up and began shooting at Vandal. The thug's eyes widened and he held up his arms as the bullets came at him, but he had to stay on his toes as Ren began to strafe around him. With the onslaught of bullets continuing to embed themselves into the armor, Vandal felt the need to ask. "Uh, dude, just what the hell is your endgame here?"
"Simple; a distraction." the green ninja answered.
"W-Wait, wha—" CLANG! "AAAAAGH!" Without warning, Vandal felt something VERY hard come smacking right into his back, sending him face-first straight into a large metal crate. He fell to the ground on his back, his eyes a bit hazy, but he could still make out the sight of a pink skirt approaching him. He blinked a couple times and was met with the sight of Nora glaring right back at him, her hammer at the ready. "Heh… lucky shot… but not lucky enough!" He raised his arms to send out bolts of electricity… but was met only with a few sparks and nothing more. "W-What the…" He craned his head around and saw that the back of his armor was totally wrecked, leaving him with nothing but sparks. "Oh, COME ON!"
Nora grinned cheekily and shifted Magnhild into its grenade launcher form. "Yeah, this just ain't your lucky day, guy." With that, she blasted a single grenade at the feet of Vandal, the pink explosion sending him flying right up into the air and slamming him into the ceiling. Vandal fell right back down onto one of the metal crates, effectively knocked out cold. "HA! That'll show him!" She skipped right over to Ren and put her arm around his shoulders. "Nice work with the distraction, Renny!"
Ren's cheeks flushed a bit at the compliment. "Heh, thanks… kinda wish I was a bit more helpful there, though."
"Ah, what're you talking about?" Nora shook her head, giving him a reassuring smile. "Whether the help is big or small, I always appreciate it." She prodded his chest with her finger. "And don't you forget that, got it?"
"Hehe, okay, okay, I got it." Ren laughed, gently grabbing her hand to stop the poking. But, as he did, Nora slipped open her palm, taking her hand in his own. This took him a bit off guard, but he couldn't deny that it felt nice to hold her hand like that. It was soft and comforting, so much so that it mesmerized him a bit. His eyes ended up meeting hers and he swallowed nervously, her unwavering smile practically hitting him like a ray of sunshine. It was a revelation that he had made a long time ago, but it was no less true than it was back then; Nora was beautiful… and he had somehow fallen for his best friend.
…The only hard part was conveying his feelings into words. "U-Um, Nora…" he stammered with his cheeks red.
Nora moved her face slightly closer to his, eager to hear what he had to say. "Yes… Renny?"
"Uh, w-well… I-I think there's something we should talk about—"
"Hey guys!"
Nora had to resist the urge to grimace. 'Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!' she fumed in her head as she and Ren spun around to see Jaune and Pyrrha approaching. 'We were RIGHT THERE! He was about to say something and I was SURE that it was…' She took in a deep breath and calmed herself down. 'Relax, Nora. We're on a mission, after all. Just revisit the subject later and make sure you and he are alone…' With that, she waved to her two friends. "Oh, hey guys! Take care of your grunt?"
"Sure did." Jaune nodded. "Pyr and I showed 'em not to mess with us."
Pyrrha looked up and saw the KO'd grunt on top of the metal crate. "And it seems you did as well. So now, the only one left is—" BLAM! Team JNPR let out a collective gasp and whirled around to see a massive cloud of fiery smoke billowing up just in front of the power generator, leaving them all stunned. "…Eh, actually, I think Gwen and the boys have it covered."
…..
During Team JNPR's respective battles, Gwen had engaged with the lead grunt; Crush. The big, burly man had made no qualms about trying to hit the redhead, especially when she had raised a mana shield up to protect herself. To say that he hit hard was an understatement, but still, she would not yield to him. "NERVO!" She chanted out a magic spell and, all at once, several energy tendrils began to sprout from the shield, which made the thug lunge away from her. The tendrils followed, but Crush sent out a powerful electric shock, stopping the tendrils from coming any farther.
"Hah, not a bad trick, little lady." The mustachioed man chuckled. "But ain't nothin' you can do to stop us from makin' a pretty penny!"
"We'll see about that." Gwen shot back. "Kevin! Let's give this guy exactly what he deserves!"
She heard a hesitant laugh from behind her. "Uh, heh… would love to babe, but…"
"Hm? What's wrong, Kev—AH!" Gwen gasped at the sight of her boyfriend several feet behind her… and his arms were still implanted where he had hit the ground from before. Needless to say, the sight of her boyfriend bent over with his arms stuck was odd, making her shake her head in disbelief. "W-What happened?! Why're you stuck like that?!"
"Hehe… well, it might have to do with the Earth Dust… maybe?" Kevin replied before trying to pull his arms out "GRR! I've been tryin' to pull 'em out for three minutes already!"
Gwen ran over and made a couple of mana tethers, wrapping them around Kevin's arms in an attempt to help. "Hold on! We can get you out of this!"
"HA! What a maroon!" Crush guffawed, bringing the couple's attention back to him. "Ya made a good first impression kid, but the important part's all about followin' up!" He cupped his hands together and, in between them, he began to charge up a large spark of electricity. "Fortunately, I CAN do that!" He thrust his hands toward the two and shouted; "EAT THIS!" He sent a huge blast of lightning at the couple, making them shout as Gwen brought up a mana shield around them.
BLAM! But, just then, Gwen's eyes snapped open at the sound of laser fire, her sights snapping up to see a huge, billowing cloud of fiery smoke in front of them. "Pardon me, but I believe that firing upon an immobile enemy is not very courteous." The duo smiled at the sight of Rook, the Revonnahgander standing with his Proto-Tool at the ready. He glanced over to them and nodded. "Gwen, get Kevin out of there. I will handle him in the meantime."
The redhead gave Rook a thumbs up. "Great, thanks Rook!" She watched as Rook transformed his Proto-Tool into a tonfa and went into the battle, getting up close and personal with Crush. At the sound of approaching footsteps, though, Gwen was relieved to see Team JNPR coming to her aid as well. "Hah, guys! Glad to see you handled your enemies."
"Yep, done and dusted!" Nora said before she slyly smirked over to Kevin. "But, uh… just what do we have here, exactly?"
Kevin gave a slight grimace at that. "A guy who needs help, what's it look like to ya?"
Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle in amusement. "Oh, come now, Kevin. You must admit, it's a little funny."
"Now's not the time to be laughing!"
Jaune sent a sympathetic grin to the Osmosian as he and Ren went to either side of him. "Kev's right. Let's get him outta there, huh?" Pyrrha and Nora followed their examples as Gwen doubled her efforts on his arms, with Jaune giving the word; "One… two… THREE!" With that, all five of them pulled on Kevin, and before long, they managed to pull his arms right out of the ground… but not without a little baggage. "HOLY HELL!"
Kevin's rocky body tell to the ground with a THOMP, and the first sight he was met with was the sight of his own arms… or at least that's what he ASUMED they were. His arms still felt relatively normal, but surrounding them was a TON of rocks, dirt and clay that had morphed itself into a pair of even BIGGER arms, with fists that resembled two gigantic blocks. In fact, they sort of resembled Rex's Smack Hands, only instead of screws in the knuckles, they were boulders. "Woah… I've got ANCHOR ARMS!" Kevin proclaimed as he stood up… only to immediately be taken off balance by the large appendages and fall over. "Oof!"
"Wha… how did THAT happen?" Ren wondered.
"My guess? The Earth Dust." Pyrrha noted. "When Earth Dust is used, it can be used to manipulate… well, the very earth beneath one's feet. It can also be used to CREATE stone, but considering what Kevin did, the earth must've been attracted to the Dust itself and formed his giant arms.
Kevin wore a wily smirk and he got up. "Ha! Well, might as well take advantage of this! Hang on, Rook, I'm comin'!"
As that was going on, Rook was still in the middle of fighting Crush, using his quickness and agile combat techniques to counter the huskier man's more brutal style. Crush was breathing hard as he continued to try and land a hit on Rook, but to no avail as the Revonnahgander simply continued to sidestep him and keep hitting hard with his tonfa. "GAH! Would you HOLD STILL?!" Crush bellowed.
"And why would I do that?" Rook asked with another hit to the man's back. "If I did, I would be shocked."
"EXACTLY!" Crush leapt back and thrust his arms forward, charging another bolt of lightning. "I've had enough of this!" ZZZZAP! A bright flash of light was followed with a huge arc of electricity making its way to Rook, making the young Plumber's eyes widen as it closed in on him. But, before it could hit him, a lone figure jumped in the way of the blast and crossed its large arms, blocking the lightning effectively. "GAH! What?!"
"Sorry pal!" Kevin smirked as he peeked over his huge, rocky arms. "But you're not blasting my pal here!"
Rook couldn't help but smile at that. "I am your pal?"
Kevin chuckled with a toothy grin. "Of course. Now, stand back and watch me work!" Rook did as Kevin asked before he charged straight at Crush, who was sending out more lightning blasts at him.
"Kid, you just picked a fight with the WRONG guy!" Crush slammed his fists together, charging them with electricity before sprinting right for Kevin. He went for a powerful double punch… that was immediately caught in one of Kevin's massive rocky hands. Crush let out a gasp as the hands effortlessly bent the metal armor, with Kevin's smirk increasing in size.
"My turn." With a single, powerful punch, Kevin propelled crush high up into the air, knocking him clean out of the armor in the process. Crush went sailing through one of the skylights, smashing the window as he screamed and flew to the edge of the building. The gang heard him land on the roof with a THUD as they grouped up once again.
"HAHA! Kevin, that was amazing!" Gwen hugged her boyfriend giddily. "You really threw HIM for a loop!"
"Heh, yeah, I guess I did." Kevin shrugged as he observed his massive rock arms. "Guess there's still a lot to learn about this Dust than I first thought."
"Bro… WHAT THE HELL?!" The Omni-Hunters turned their heads up and saw Fistrick glaring at them from across the room, his hand on a control panel with his hands clenched. "You guys just took out ALL of my guys! You bros just made a BIG mistake!"
The group stood defiant, though, with Jaune's own glare hardening at their foe. "Oh, trust me, shutting YOU down isn't a mistake! NORA!"
At his word, Nora used her hammer to propel herself forward, swinging the weapon above her head as she closed in on Fistrick. "LET THOSE CUTE LITTLE ALIENS GO!" But, just as the Pink Dynamo was about to make contact, Fistrick smirked and fell backward… right into an opening hatch in the floor. "Huh?!" Nora came in for a landing, pulling her hammer back as the others ran up to her. "W-What's going on?!"
"Hahaha!" After they heard Fistrick's laugh, a mechanical whirring could be heard from the hole… and the group's jaws all fell at the sight of what rose out of it. It was a giant, heavily armored mecha-suit. It was primarily orange with some gunmetal detailing, mainly around all of the joints and fingers. There were treads in its feet and its head actually had several metal spikes that matched Fistrick's. Speaking of, the man himself was actually sitting inside the suit's chest, with several panels still open. "Hehe… you never asked WHY we needed these Nosedeenians, did ya?"
With those words, the front of the suit closed up, revealing a white skull design on its chest panels, as well as a couple of vents. The mecha suit then turned around… revealing six pods implanted on its back. And inside each of them was a Megawatt in its electrified form, all of them in visible pain. Fistrick chuckled again and said; "Let's take this baby for a test drive!" The mech took a step forward and raised its fist, with Nora being its primary target.
"NORA!" Ren ran and dived at her, tackling her to the ground and getting her out of the way of the fist. The two started at the giant hand in astonishment before Ren faced his partner again. "Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah…" Nora nodded before her eyes moved up to the mech worriedly. "…But something tells me we won't be soon."
"Better believe it, girly!" Fistrick announced, smashing the mecha's fist into its palm. "Because I'm gonna squish you posers like BUGS!"
As the group stared up at the machine, utterly baffled on what they'd do next, Gwen briefly glanced over to the redheaded warrior. "Pyrrha… I think you can speak for all of us on this one."
"Hm… right." Pyrrha sighed as she gripped her xiphos, preparing herself for whatever came next. "…Crapbaskets."
…..
A/N: And the running gag continues! Pyrrha saying that word has seriously become one of my favorite gags, namely because you would never expect someone like her to even SAY it. Thanks DBZ Abridged for sticking it in my head in the first place!
But, more importantly, there was lots of action in this chapter, too! We had a chase scene, the introduction of Fistrick, his underlings (of which I added one just for the sake of having more goons for the heroes to fight), and we've seen the return of the Megawatts, who all seem to be in a spot of trouble, for sure. Also, just as an aside; I freaking LOVE Fistrick as a villain. I wasn't too fond of him when Omniverse was first airing, but now I can't get enough of him! He's just such a freaking ham and I'm here for it! But hm… what's that part that his first lackey said about HIM having a boss of his own? Interesting…
Also, we get a LOT more focus on Nora in this chapter (unsurprisingly, given the subject) as well as more Renora teasing, hehe… But of course, at the end, Fistrick's brought out that Class 12 Armored Mechsuit to fight the whole gang. In the show, Gravattack took that thing down, but how in the world will THEY be able to do the same thing? Well, we'll just have to wait for NEXT TIME to find out! There, we'll see the battle with the Mechasuit unfold, as well as the aftermath of said battle. How will the group fair? Well stay tuned for the exciting and SHOCKING conclusion! …Yeah, yeah, I know, that was a Yang-level pun. In any case, thanks for reading, everyone and I'll see you all next time! Stay safe out there!
