A/N (IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT, Please Read): Greetings, everyone! Happy Friday once again, and you know what that means! Indeed, it's time for the second season finale of Ben 10/RWBY. Man, there's a lot that went on this year, I'll say that much, but before we get into the chapter itself, I think it's time for that major announcement I've been talking about.

So, I've been doing this "seasonal" format for Ben 10/RWBY since Volume 2 started, alternating between this and my Transformers/MHA crossover during the winter months. However, I've been putting a lot of thought into this and I've come to realize that this format is actually kind of limiting. Because believe it or not, there was a lot more that I wanted to do with Season 2 and there just wasn't enough time in that seven-month window for me to get to it all. Plus, in general, the pacing of the story has been all over the place, and for that, I apologize if it's been jarring for some.

Now, THAT is where this announcement comes in. Because I'm still going to be taking a break from Ben 10/RWBY to focus on my Transformers/MHA story for a little while. BUT… when we come back in April, things are going to be a bit different. For the sake of BOTH stories, I've come to a conclusion; it would be less limiting and more beneficial to work on both stories at the same time. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do! I'm going to alternate between my main two stories week by week and we're going to see how that format works out. Starting next year, Ben 10/RWBY's going bi-weekly, which WILL be a first, but I think it something that'll help me sort out some pacing issues as well as take stock of how I want a chapter to go. It'll certainly give me much more planning time, and it'll make it so I don't just abandon Transformers/MHA for seven months. I hope you guys are looking forward to this new format, because I certainly am!

Well, now that I've got the announcement out of the way, let's see how things are going for our heroes in this tense situation, shall we? This is…

Chapter 60: Outbreak, Part 2

…..

"So… anyone have a plan?"

That was the question on everyone's minds at the moment, that was for certain. Psyphon's ultimatum was both chilling and very demanding, and it didn't help that his new form was fairly frightening. After getting mutated into alien hybrids, the Omni-Hunters really thought that it couldn't get much worse after that… oh, how wrong they were. After Neptune had asked the question, Weiss folded her arms over her chest, thinking of their options. "Honestly, I'm not too sure. Psyphon's probably sealed himself off down there, so there's no easy way in."

Yang, however, was quick to argue that. "Uh, Weiss, I think you're forgetting that eight of us are now SUPER powerful aliens who could probably blow past those barricades like they're nothing." She flexed her right arm as she ignited a fireball in her fist. "We can take those guys down no sweat!"

"Nora-drillo LOVES this plan!" Nora pumped her piston arms up, pumping the jackhammers vigorously. "L-L-Let's-s-s d-d-do it-t-t-t!"

"Now hold on a sec." Sun interjected. "If we get anywhere CLOSE to them, Psyphon will just put the power core into overload and set off the Null Void portal. Then BAM, no more Bellwood." The Arachnichimp hybrid craned his head down to their leader, hoping he'd have an idea. "Ben, what's our best option in this situation?"

"Hmm…" Walkatrout pondered on the question as he began pacing around. "Honestly, I think—woah!" SPLAT! Unfortunately, the fish alien once again slipped on his own flippers, grimacing as he hit the ground. "GAH! I can't think like this! I'm a FISH for crying out loud!"

Just then, someone unexpected decided to add their two cents in. "Ahem, pardon me for interrupting…" Everyone set their sights onto Lionheart, the mutant keeping his head low as he spoke. "But perhaps it would be prudent to go directly to the power core first and shut that down? Then this "Psyphon" fellow wouldn't be able to execute his plan at all."

"That is… actually not a bad idea." Ren noted.

"Blake—gah, I mean I agree." Blake said, smacking her head to get her grammar straight. "If we can sneak down into the core room and shut it down, then Psyphon's plan is utterly ruined."

Max hummed, thinking over the idea. "It IS probably our best option… but there's just one problem." The team were all focused on him as he wore a grim expression. "If the power core is shut down, then the secondary security systems will be offline as well."

"And those are specifically made to prevent jailbreaks." Rook continued. "So, in reality, Psyphon may just be thinking several steps ahead."

Walkatrout grumbled at that. "Ugh, I hate it when the bag guys play mental chess! They always love being one move ahead…" However, just as he said that, and idea popped into his brain and his eyes widened. "Hold on… that's it!"

"What's "it", bro?" Rex tilted his head.

"If Psyphon really IS thinking a step ahead, then we'll just have to think ahead of him, too." Walkatrout pointed up to Lionheart. "We'll go with Professor Lionheart's plan in shutting down the core, but at the same time, we'll send our heavy hitters…" He pointed up to his mutated teammates, as well as Manny and Helen. "That being all of you, and we'll vice them in. They'll have no where to run if we trap 'em like rats!"

Up on Max's shoulder, Luhley smiled in approval. "Now THAT is a smart plan, Ben." She started hopping across several other sets of shoulders. "We should go to my lab. There's an access hatch that I believe leads down right to the power core. Plus, like I said, I have replacement regulators in my lab. Finally, she landed on Jaune's shoulders, pointing down to Walkatrout. "Unfortunately, there's no telling which one was taken, so I'll have to try several on the Omnitrix until we find the correct one."

Walkatrout nodded up to her. "Right, good idea." He waddled around toward Rook, pointing at the Revonnahgander-Gourmand. "Rook, put a team of small Plumbers together."

"You mean a small team of Plumbers?" Rook raised a brow.

"No, a team of SMALL Plumbers!" The hero insisted. "Sheesh, we need the shortest shorties we got if we're gonna make it through that hatch." Understanding the order, Rook saluted to Walkatrout before taking off to do just that, leaving the Omnitrix-bearer to speak with his team. "Now, as for the seven of you, you guys should head down, get Ruby, Ilia and Penny, and then continue toward the Null Void portal room. Once I call and give the signal, that's when you'll bust in."

Yang gave him a thumbs up. "Sounds like a plan, Green Boy." Her eyes then set over onto Lionheart, giving him a brief nod. "And professor… thanks for the suggestion. Your idea's really gonna come in handy, I can just tell."

Lionheart smiled and bowed his head. "Thank you, Miss Xiao Long… but if I may, I would like to request my assistance in this matter." Needless to say, the group were taken aback by his appeal, all as he extended his paws out to them. "I wish to start paying recompence for my actions from Haven, and this seems like a most optimal time to start."

"Hang on just a damn minute." Sun narrowed his four eyes and pointed at Lionheart harshly. "How do you expect US to trust you right now? Just because you came up with a decent plan doesn't mean you're off the hook here."

"Woah there, Sun, hold on." Walkatrout raised his fins, stopping the monkey boy. "Let's not get too heated here. We've got enough to worry about."

Sun didn't let up his glare at his former teacher, but he knew that Ben was right. Now wasn't the time to start this back up again. "…Yeah, I get that. But still, I don't think it's a good idea to take him along."

"Maybe not." Walkatrout shrugged. "But at this point, we could use all the help we can get."

Neptune went up to his partner, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sun, as much as I agree with you, I also kind of agree with Ben. Those bad guys have some pretty strong powers at their disposal, and we could always use some more muscle." He saw Sun's eyes shift toward him, the blonde's brow raising. "I get it, trust me, I have as many issues with Lionheart as you do. But right now, we need to put all that aside so that we don't get blown into the Null Void."

With a deep breath, Sun tried to let go of his frustrations, though that was easier said than done. His focus went back to the lion man, all while crossing his arms over his chest. "You won't try to run away?"

"Where would I have to run, Sun?" Lionheart said sadly. "I am a freak in a world that is unfamiliar to me. I couldn't go anywhere even if I tried."

"Hmph, I guess you've got a point." With that, Sun proceeded to walk over to Ben, Jaune, Pyrrha and Luhley, waving off the former headmaster and the others. "You guys can take him. I'm gonna see if I can help out these guys with the power core."

Blake's eyes widened and she reached out to her boyfriend. "Sun Wukong, wait—"

But Sun spun around and held out his hand. "Blake, please…" The Appoplexian hybrid paused, stunned at his response. "It's nothing to do with you, I just… I can't be around him right now." Sun turned back around, mainly so no one could see his cold glare. "You guys might be able to trust Lionheart enough… but not me."

With that, the monkey boy left, headed toward a door on the other side of the room. "…Um, my lab is that way." Luhley pointed in a different direction, causing Sun to stop mid-step and spin on his heel toward that course.

Walkatrout sighed before craning his head up to Blake. "Hah… I'll talk to him."

"Please do, delicious-looking Ben Tennyson." Blake nodded, staring sadly after her boyfriend. "Sun Wukong needs to see that just because someone did something bad, doesn't mean they ARE bad." She set her gaze over to Lionheart, who was also wearing a despondent expression. "Though that doesn't entirely forgive what you did."

Leonardo gave his own sigh, clenching his hands in regret. "Of course, I know. Bah, if I wasn't such a coward, perhaps this may not have happened."

"Well, what's done is done." Helen said as she went over to Leonardo, taking a control remote out of her back pocket. With a click of a button, she pointed it at the energy shackles and they disappeared, much to the lion mutant's shock. "Now you can spend the rest of your days trying to make up for what you've done."

Leonardo rubbed his wrists, putting on a determined stare. "And I intend to. Now, you said something about going to collect your friends?"

…..

"I can't FREAKING believe this!" Swift was pacing back and forth in her room, practically seething under the dim lights that had perpetually stayed on for the last twenty minutes after the lower levels went into lockdown. Only problem is… that everything ELSE had been shut off to reroute power to the secondary security systems. THAT was a big problem. "Of ALL the times that a prisonbreak had to happen, THIS had to be it?!"

Ilia couldn't lie, she was rather bummed herself. It was one thing to be hanging out with her best friend-slash-crush, but she had genuinely been anticipating watching the Owl House with her, Penny and Ruby as well. But right as they were finishing the first episode… everything except the lights turned off. And what's worse was that the show was setting up to be something fun. "Believe me, Swift, I feel your pain."

"As do I." Penny concurred. "I was having quite an enjoyable time with all of the wacky magical shenanigans on that show."

Ruby groan and fell flat on the bed, her arms stretched out over the whole mattress. "Ugh, but of course, knowing us, we can't go TWO SECONDS without something bad happening! I knew yesterday being peaceful was too good to be true!"

Swift gave a disappointed sigh, her face one of sympathy as she looked to the girls. "Sorry ladies. I mean, who the hell could've predicted THIS of all things?"

"No one, could've." Ilia insisted, standing up from the bed to place a hand on Swift's shoulder. "And believe me, we know how much this sucks. But on the bright side…" She extended a hand to Penny and Ruby with a bright smile. "We're here, we're all fine, and I'm sure that the team are working on a way to stop all of this. That HAS to be an upside, right?" The chameleon girl gave a supportive wink, which made Swift blush a little.

"E-Er, yeah, of course!" Swift agreed quickly, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm sure everything's gonna be fine." Her sights went over to the door with a frustrated stare. "Just wish we weren't in lock down, though. Maybe we'd be able to help out in some way."

At that moment, right as she said that, an idea sparked in Ruby's head. "Wait a second!" She snapped up straight with an incredulous expression. "What the heck ARE we doing just sitting here?! We can get out no problem!" She pointed to Penny with an knowing smirk. "Penny, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Penny brightened up immediately. "Oh, yes, of course!" She hopped up from the bed… and immediately broke out her Mechano-Crushers. "Let's get out of here, ladies!"

The three girls had to duck to avoid the massive, spiked fists, with Ruby deadpanning at her best friend. "Uh… actually, I was going to suggest hacking into the door with your nanite powers."

The redhead blinked in realization before quickly putting her giant fists away. "Oh, haha! That's right, silly me!" she smiled sheepishly.

"…How is she so…" Swift started before trailing off.

"Forgivably adorable?" Ilia finished as they watched Penny place her hand upon the door, with green lines moving out from her palm onto the metal surface. "Honestly, I have no idea. That's just Penny being Penny."

Swift smirked as she watched the door open, leading Penny to salute and exclaim; "Open sesame seeds!"

"Don't let Rook hear that, you'll just confuse him more." Swift quipped as she and the girls quickly made their way out. "Alright, we got our freedom, so now let's—" But she immediately stopped and gasped, causing the other three to do the same. They were out in the hall now, sure… but they were also blocked in by two large bulkheads on either side. The base was well and truly under lockdown. "Oh, COME ON!"

Ilia could feel her eye twitching in annoyance. "You have GOT to be kidding me. Can't anything ever just be EASY?!"

Ruby facepalmed and groaned, waving her hand at Penny. "Alright, Pen, we could use those giant fists now…"

But, before Penny could even think of pulling her weapons back out… something caught the Hooded Huntress' ear. "Ruby?! Ruby are you there?!"

"Ah! YANG!" Ruby broke out into a happy smile and dashed to the bulkhead on their right, placing her ear against it. "Yang, are you back there?!"

"RUBY! Oh, thank god, you're okay." Yang sighed in relief. "Are Penny, Ilia and Swift there with you?"

Ruby sighed and nodded. "Yeah, we're all here and we're all doing good… aside from being trapped behind this blockade thingy."

Just then, Weiss' voice spoke to her from behind the heavy metal. "Ruby, don't worry, we've busted through a few of these already. We'll be right there." There was a brief pause before Weiss added; "Oh, and um… you might want to brace yourself for what you're about to see…"

"Haha, Weiss, what're you talking about—"

"STAND BACK, RUBY ROSE!" The young Silver-Eyed warrior was taken aback by the loud, shouty voice from behind the wall… but upon further hearing, she could tell that it was Blake. But for some reason, her voice was much more growly. "We're bustin' this thing DOWN!"

A feeling of uncertainty washed over Ruby in that moment, but she decided it'd be best to heed her friend's warnings. "Um… okay?" She stepped back and, within seconds, she and the others saw the bulkhead start to heat up, the metal becoming a bright, glowing orange. But, just as quickly, it then froze over entirely, causing the metal to turn brittle beneath the ice. "W-What the…" BOOM! BOOM! "Oh no… DUCK!"

The quartet all pulled their heads down and took cover where they could, as… BAM! The bulkhead was broken through, sending hunks of metal and ice everywhere as debris crumbled around the new entrance. Ruby, Penny, Ilia and Swift all craned their heads back up… and were left stunned by what they saw. "…What the hell?" Swift muttered.

Stepping through the hole came Blake, Nora, Rex, Yang, Weiss, Ren and Neptune… though needless to say, they weren't their usual selves. In fact, if Ruby hadn't known any better, she'd say they looked a lot like… 'Wait, no way…' Ruby took note of her sister's new plant-like body and flames erupting from her hands, Weiss with her cute new hood and bug-like eyes, along with frosty breath flowing from her lips, and of course Blake with her overall tigress-like appearance… and the way she talked only just cinched her thoughts.

Rex, the EVO's flesh now solid diamond and with one hand having morphed into a hammer, stepped up with a cheeky grin. "Avon calling!"

"G-Guys… w-what, how, who…?" Ruby tried expressing her thoughts, but all that came out was incoherent words.

"Heya, sis!" Yang smiled, extinguishing the flame by closing her hand. "Surprised?"

"TO SAY THE LEAST!" Ilia started flailing her arms uncontrollably toward the team. "What the hell is with all of… THIS?!"

"Ilia, relax, we're okay." Weiss stressed, raising a reassuring hand.

"HA! We showed you, ya stupid door!" Blake suddenly shouted as she kicked a chunk of the bulkhead… and immediately stubbed her toe. "AAAGH! Ow! Ouch!" Her lips curled into a snarl and she pointed at the chunk. "LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING, HUNK OF FROZEN METAL! BLAKE'S NOT ABOUT TO TAKE YOUR BULLCRAP! IT'S GO TIME, PUNK! GRAAAGH!" And with that, the Appoplexian hybrid tackled the frozen metal, rolling along the floor like a kitten with a ball of yarn.

As everyone stared at the scene in shock and stunned silence, Weiss covered her eyes and muttered; "Well… almost all of us are fine."

But Nora simply laughed the whole thing off. "Ahaha! Oh, don't worry about it, Weiss! Let Blake have her fun." The Talpaedan girl placed her hands on her hips with a confident grin. "Besides, everything's gonna be okay now, because the Alien Force is here to save the day!"

"Ooh, cool name, Nora." Neptune complimented. "Someone should use that as a name of a show or something."

"Snrt! I know, right!" Nora gave a snorting laugh. "Sometimes, I even impress myself!"

Swift cleared her throat, her brows furrowing at the group. "Could any of you PLEASE stay on track and actually EXPLAIN to us what happened to you guys?!" She thrust her arms out to all of them to emphasize her point. "I mean, seriously, why the hell do you look like aliens… that are all in Tennyson's Omnitrix…" She grimaced as she answered her own question, with the nervous smiles on everyone's faces only affirming it. "Ugh, what happened THIS time?"

Ren stepped forward, his long legs making it easy to get to the front of the group. "I can explain. So, this all began when an evil Cerebrocrustacean named Dr. Psychobos came in and stole a piece of the Omnitrix…" The insectoid alien ninja went on to explain everything as the four girls listened intently, filling them in on everything that had happened. "And that's basically it."

"So now we're dealing with a bunch of escaped prisoners who're threatening to suck Bellwood into the Null Void." Penny said, processing all of the information that was just fed to her.

"Yep, things have gone from zero to one hundred in the span of no time at all." Rex shook his head. "Hah, and we were having SUCH a good day, too."

"True that." From the hole in the bulkhead, Manny and Helen came through, the Tetramand wearing a determined scowl. "But now, we get to beat those fools up and put 'em back where they belong; behind bars."

"And we have a bit of help here with us for that…" Helen extended her hand to the hole and in came Lionheart, taking Ruby, Ilia and Penny aback.

Ruby's hand covered her mouth in shock. "P-Professor Lionheart?"

"Hello, Miss Rose." Leonardo bowed his head politely. "Miss Polendina, Miss Amitola. It is good to see that you're alright."

Penny raised her brow suspiciously. "You are… out of your restraints?"

Ilia's eyes flashed red briefly. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be waiting for Ironwood to take you back to Remnant so you can face justice."

"And believe me, young lady, I will." Leonardo placed a hand over his heart in solidarity. "But, if I wish to begin making up for my past ill-deeds, I would like to start as soon as possible." He gave a nod down to the alien hybrid members of the team. "And to do so, I thought there would be no better place than to start with all of you."

"Lionheart even suggested the power core plan we told you about." Neptune added before realizing; "Oh, shoot, that's right! If we wanna make time, we've gotta keep going! The others could be starting any minute."

"Right, let's get going, team." Yang pointed over to the next bulkhead. "Let's break through the next one of those things." She and Weiss did their combo on the bulkhead again before the blonde called her partner over. "Blake, you and Nora are up!"

Blake stood up and slammed her fist into her palm eagerly. "GLADLY! That chunk of crap PISSED me off!" She popped some muscles in her neck and flexed her arms as she and Nora stepped up to the bulkhead. The Appoplexian girl roared in fury and pulled her arm back… but then… RRRRRIIIP! Blake's eyes widened in horror the moment she felt her top rip at the back, letting out a scream as she hastily covered her chest to keep things from falling. "AAAAH! DAMMIT!"

The group gave a collective gasp as Rex, Neptune, Ren, Manny and Leonardo all hastily did an about-face. Ilia's spots became a pink so hot that it was almost red, suddenly feeling very lightheaded. "Oh… god."

"Damn, that is NOT good, girl." Swift said before dashing right to her room. "Hold on a sec…" In record time, the Aerophibian girl zipped in and out, bringing back with her a grey, pull-over hoodie. "Here, this oughta work for the time being. Not sure if you mind the writing on the front, but—"

"DON'T CARE!" Blake snatched it out of Swift's hands and made a break for the room for some privacy. "Need to change NOW!"

Yang held her head in her hands, trailing them through her hair to try and get a grip on the situation. 'Ugh, I only hope Ben and the others are doing better than we are right now.'

…..

Inside Luhely's lab, however, the Omnitrix bearer was feeling nervous as he watched the young Galvan girl come over to him with at least three regulators. Or rather, as her and her robot assistant came over. The robot itself was rather egg-shaped and had blue optics peeking out from inside up near the top, giving it a very cute appearance. The regulators were all different shapes and colors, but Walkatrout was hopeful that at least one of them would work. "You think one of these will get me back to normal, Luhely?"

"Well, the only way to know is to try them all. Robucket, the first regulator, please?" The robot handed Luhley the part and she and moved over to Walkatrout, twisting the Omnitrix so that its core popped up from his harness. "And if none of these work, there ARE more that we can try." She glanced up to Sun, Jaune and Pyrrha, giving them a nod. "Cross your vestigial digits."

The monkey boy smirked as he showed the group eight sets of crossed fingers. "Way ahead of ya, little gal."

Luhley took a deep breath and inserted the first core in. "Alright, here goes." The second she put it in, a bright flash of light engulfed the lab, and once it died down… the four spectators all went slack jawed at what they saw.

"Well, did it work?" Ben asked, only to hear his voice was suddenly quite high-pitched. …And that his friends were all obviously trying to hold back a cavalcade of laughter. "Oh no… how bad is it?"

"Pffffftt—I-It's not as bad as you think, really!" Jaune snickered, biting his lip to resist his laugh.

Sun, however, couldn't do that successfully. "Hehehe—ooh-ooh-ooh! Y-Yeah, you look pretty."

"Pretty what?" Ben stressed, only to see Pyrrha coming forward with the compact mirror.

"Hmhm… pretty pretty." The very second she held the mirror in front of Ben, Pyrrha had to forcefully slap her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing. Ben's utterly stunned expression was priceless.

He was now a little, spritely alien with teal blue skin and indigo-colored hair, which the hero could only compare to a Troll doll. His limbs were thin and he wore white gloves with matching boots, along with a green and black piece of cloths over his torso. His eyes were… elegant for lack of a better term, and the frilly fairy wings on his back only made his heart sink even more. This was TOO saccharine for him. "AAAAAAAAHHH!" He twisted the Omnitrix back open and spun to Luhley in midair, causing his wings to fling sparkly dust off of them. "A different one! A DIFFERENT ONE!"

Luhley, holding back her own giggles, obliged immediately. "Hmph, alright Pesky Dust, let's try again…" Robucket handed her another regulator and she loaded it in, and once more, Ben transformed.

This time, he had become what could only be described as a bipedal, brown furred rodent wearing a black and green body suit, one with a rather luxurious mustache. "Hm, not human yet, but at least I don't feel frilly anymore…" Pyrrha lowered the mirror down for him again, his reflection intriguing him. "Hm… neat…" He began brushing his new facial hair, garnering a smile that showed off his big, buck teeth. "Ooh, I could get used to this…"

"Heh, well don't get too comfortable, Molestache." Jaune commented. "We still got one more for ya."

"Hehe, you know, you guys aren't half bad naming aliens." Molestache complimented as he made the core pop up once more. "If we weren't in a near death situation, I'd ask you to name my Dragon and Moth Man forms."

Luhley wasted no time inserting the next regulator, making the hero change form once again. This time, however… the four immediately cringed at the sight. Ben had transformed into a small, yellow creature, one that was pudgy and quite overweight by all appearances. He had beady eyes, a big mouth with unkempt teeth, and his only garment was a pair of green and white underwear. The Omnitrix was now in his belly button. "Oh… that's unfortunate." Sun mumbled.

"What? Lemme see…" Ben stood up and peered into the compact, only to be repelled by his own reflection. "Oh—OH GOD! This thing is… is…"

"The Worst." Pyrrha finished.

With a deep inhale through his nostrils, the newly dubbed "The Worst" pointed up to Pyrrha in approval. "Yep, I'm using that."

Luhley gave a frustrated sigh, kicking the floor. "Gah, tadpoles! I thought for sure that at least ONE of those would work…" She started making her way over to her supply station again with Robucket following her, right as the door opened and Rook came in. "I'll keep searching, but right now, you guys need to start the operation. If I find the correct one, I'll be down as soon as possible."

"Thanks, Luhley." The Worst bowed his head before facing Rook. "Well, how'd it go, Rook?"

"Ben, I—oh."

"Yeah, I know. It sucks."

Rook grimaced at the sight, nodding in agreement. "That, I cannot argue with." He cleared his throat and pressed on. "Ahem, as I was saying, I have managed to find the smallest Plumbers in this base, and they have all willingly volunteered to participate in this operation." Rook extended a hand out to said Plumbers, and the four Omni-Hunters were curious to say the least.

One was just straight up a Molestache, much to their surprise… though what stunned them more was that apparently his name was "Jerry" if his nametag had anything to say. Aside from Jerry, though, all of these aliens were rather unique in shape. One was a walking amoeba with googly eyes, another was a blue alien that they could only describe as "chicken-shaped". Then there was a purple alien with four arms that resembled a stick bug, and finally a slug-like alien with long eye stalks. "Well… they're all small, I'll say that much." Jaune commented.

"Are you certain that they'd be able to handle this?" Pyrrha asked. "I mean, I'm sure they're all well trained Plumbers, but—"

"My good lady." Jerry piped up, keeping his head held high and his weapon up as he gave a salute. "I can assure you that despite our size, we ARE the best of the best for our size. Rest easy, for there will be nary any trouble down there."

The mole alien's eloquent vernacular was enough to make Pyrrha pause, only for the Invincible Girl to shrug. "Well, who can argue with that?" She craned her head down to The Worst, tilting her head. "And you're certain you don't want us to come with you?"

The Worst gave her a sympathetic smile. "Believe me, Pyrrha, I'd want nothing more, but I don't think you guys will have a good time trying to get down there in that clunky armor." He rubbed the back of his fatty neck. "…Plus, you'd make a lot of noise if you knock against the walls while we're down there, so…"

"We gotcha, Ben." Jaune waved off, placing a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. "We'll stay here and see if we can't help Luhley find that regulator she needs."

The Worst gave him a thumbs up. "Yeah, sounds good, Jaune." He then jerked his thumb over to Sun. "And besides, we'll have Sun with us, so we'll be fine."

Sun himself glanced down to the shaft, raising an eyebrow in trepidation. "And you're sure I can fit down that thing?"

"Heck yeah, bro." With a wily smirk, the Worst raised a fist up to the Arachnichimp hybrid. "You know how many tight spaces I've been able to sneak into with Spider-Monkey? You'll be able to fit down there in a cinch." The hero pointed up at his tail. "Plus, with your web, we'll be able to get down there a lot easier."

Slowly but surely, Sun's smile returned and he chuckled a little. "Hehe… yeah, I get what you're puttin' down, Ben." He turned toward the hatch and pulled his head back and forth along with his arms, loosening up all his upper body muscles before reaching for the cover and pulling it open. "Alright, little Plumber dudes, we're goin' down to Core Town! Follow me!"

They watched as the monkey boy began shimmying through the ducts, his lithe form able to work its way through without many issues. Rook and the Worst remained behind for a bit, admiring the blonde's confidence. "I must say, Sun is quite self-assured." Rook grinned as he slung a backpack over his shoulders, making his way into the ducts. "Now, let us make haste. We only have thirty minutes remaining until Psyphon triggers his plan."

"Right behind ya, Rook!" The Worst took one last look up to Jaune and Pyrrha, the three of them sharing salutes. "Wish us luck, guys." After exchanging goodbyes, The Worst and Rook followed after the small Plumbers, making their way through the ducts until they came upon a large open area. It was a cylindrical-shaped room and just by peering down, they could tell it went for a good long way. "Okay, so this is…"

"The juncture." Rook answered, bringing up a map with his Proto-Tool. "Where all ducts meet. And if my map is correct, then the path to the core should be directly below us."

"And that's where I come in…" Sun went straight toward the edge of the platform they had exited on and shot a web straight down toward the bottom. After several seconds, the team heard a THWIP, alerting them to it hitting solid ground. "Alright, sweet! Okay guys, single file." The small Plumbers all went one-by-one, with Rook taking point. Finally, that only left the Worst, who Sun gave a thumbs up to. "Alright, Ben, let's hit it." The Worst obliged and started making his way down, all while Sun latched his web onto the platform so he could crawl down himself. "Hm, we're makin' good progress."

The hero acknowledged with a; "Hm, yeah, we sure are. So… you wanna talk about what's been on your mind lately?"

Sun raised a brow at the pudgy alien. "What about?"

All of a sudden, the Worst stopped, a serious expression forming on his face. "What do you think I'm talkin' about, Sun?"

The blonde stopped as well, seeing that the Worst wasn't playing around. The whole thing was so abrupt that Sun almost didn't register what he meant, but at the end of the day… he did know. …Still wasn't gonna stop him from playing dumb. "Uh, sorry dude, but I don't think I know—"

"Lionheart, Sun." the Worst deadpanned. "I'm talking about Professor Lionheart."

"Hmph, of course." Sun rolled his eyes, becoming quickly irritated. "Do we HAVE to talk about this now? Right when we're in the middle of a mission?"

But the Worst wouldn't budge. "Rook and the others don't need us to shut down the core, they know what they're doing." His eyebrows furrowed at Sun as he pointed up at him. "So I'd say that gives me free reign to talk to you about this whole Lionheart business."

Sun craned his head away from his friend. "What's there to say? He betrayed my trust, our trust. All of Haven Academy's students are now either at Beacon or Shade because of HIS decisions." He closed his eyes in remorse. "He was kind to us, Ben. To me. He was the one who gave some of us who didn't have a home a place where we could have a roof over our heads." He sucked in his lips, hesitant to say what came next; "Lionheart was… was like a dad to all of us."

"…To you." The Worst deduced.

"Yeah… listen, I understand that you want to help, but I don't think there's anything you CAN help with." Sun's expression soured. "The Lionheart I knew became a traitor, and now he gets to live with that choice for the rest of his life."

The Worst took a deep breath, tapping his fingers against the web as he thought all of that over. "…Sun, you know… I betrayed someone's trust before."

Sun's eyes widened, sending a questioning stare down at him. "What? You're kidding."

"Nope, not kidding. In fact, it was the same day I met Kevin and got into all that trouble." The Worst shifted his eyes down, a guilty feeling churning in his gut. "I had already done some awful stuff that day, but when I did all that stuff with Kevin, Grandpa Max told me that his trust was something I'd have to earn back." He lifted his head back up to Sun. "And you know what? I did, and I worked hard to do earn it, because I didn't want to disappoint my grandpa anymore than I already did. I felt that awful."

"…Okay." Sun whispered.

"And eventually, the same thing applied with me and Kevin. It was a lot bumpier of a road, but eventually, he earned my trust." The Worst furrowed his brow as he continued. "So imagine how Lionheart must be feeling right now. After doing something that was SO much worse than what I did, and disappointing not only you, but ALL of his students."

Sun pursed his lips, understanding what the hero was getting at. "Yeah… but that doesn't—"

"No, it doesn't just erase what he did, I agree with you." The blobby alien wore a sympathetic expression as he nodded up to the monkey boy. "But if my grandpa let me earn my trust back, and if I was open to Kevin earning mine, what's stopping you from at least giving Lionheart the same chance? You can see how remorseful he feels, right?"

A soft exhale escaped Sun's lips, and he gave a nod back. "Yes, I do."

The Worst cracked a small grin. "Then I'm sure that he's genuine about wanting to earn your trust back, too. You just have to give him that opportunity."

As he pondered on those words, Sun couldn't help but reflect on his behavior toward the lion man… and upon that, he realized something; 'Damn, I really haven't been all that fair to him, have I? All I've been is angry about what happened.' He gripped his web tightly, his frustration with himself growing. 'I've been nothing but a jerk to him and yet he still wants to help… man, does EVERYTHING have to be so complicated?' He closed his eyes and let out a calming breath, collecting his thoughts before smiling to the Worst once again. "Thanks for the talk, Ben. And… you're right. I haven't been very fair with Lionheart. I'll try to be better at that."

"Good to hear, dude." The Worst gave another thumbs up. "Now come on, we've gotta catch up with the others." And that they did, shimmying down the web until the team of small Plumbers came back into sight. Eventually, however…

"This is it." Rook landed acrobatically on the floor and made his way over to another vent hatch, followed by the others. The Worst landed less than gracefully, but Sun was there to help him up, and before long, they cut their way through the hatch and entered the power core room itself.

"Hah, wow…" Sun gaped at the massive machine, with a bright, glowing orb in the center while several large rings rotated around it. As he stared, the small Plumbers all went to the control console at the base of the core, working intensely right as they sat down. Sun, Rook and the Worst watched on, and before long, the core's glow vanished and the rings stopped all together, leaving the base without power. "Huh… is that it?"

Rook hummed in affirmation. "Yes, phase one has been complete. Now we—HAH!"

The Plumbers all gasped as an orange glow suddenly came burning through the wall near Sun and the Worst, leading them both to jump away. Before long, a hole was cut through the metal and the wall was taken down by a large fist, revealing Fistina, Liam, Bubble Helmet, and Psyphon himself. The Pyronite hybrid wore a jagged smirk as he walked in, clapping condescendingly. "Hmhmhm, yes, thank you all! We couldn't have done it without you…"

"Huh, so you're Psyphon, eh?" Sun asked as he placed all four hands on his hips. "Honestly, I thought you'd be taller—WOAH!" The Arachnichimp hybrid ducked just in time to avoid an incoming fireball, which caused all the smaller Plumbers to flee as well.

Psyphon glared at the boy maliciously. "SILENCE, whelp! You are not the ones in control here, are you?"

The Worst waddled up and pointed to the villain. "Pretty sure we are, dude. We just knocked out the power, including the Null Void. You're done."

But the crime boss and his lackeys all chortled with nefarious intent. "Hahaha! Oh, you'd like to think so, wouldn't you? But… no." He laced his hands together, placing his pointer fingers against one another. "You see, thanks to all of you, not only has the power core been shut off, but so has the secondary security forcefield surrounding this base. It's so low-level you probably wouldn't notice it… but it serves and important purpose."

"Stopping jailbreaks." Rook stated simply, crossing his arms.

"EXACTLY! So you see, we tricked you into getting what we want FOR us!" The four criminals erupted into victorious laughter, only for Psyphon to snap his fingers. "But, with that out of the way, we will be going now and… wait." Psyphon paused as he took note of the trio's faces, noticing that they weren't either surprised, scared or even ready for a fight. They seemed… bored. "What is going on here? Why aren't you—"

"Shocked? Appalled? Even the least bit angry?" The Worst listed off. "Well, I'll tell ya, Psyphon; it's because we EXPECTED that to happen."

Sun's smile returned as he widened his stance. "We had a feeling you'd wanna get an easy out from this, so we have a little plan of our own in place." He reached behind him and took out Ryui Jingu Bang, performing a four-armed technique with the nunchaku before taking a combat stance. "We're stopping you here and now."

Psyphon and his goons all shared a glance… and then burst out into laughter once again, pointing toward the small Plumbers behind them in amusement. "Oh-hoho! Oh, now THAT is rich. You and what army, monkey boy? Your battalion of misfit shorties?! HAHA—" BOOM! …BOOM! Psyphon immediately stopped as a feeling of dread went up his spine. "…What was that?"

"Oh, nothing much…" BAM! The Worst pointed toward the hole Psyphon made where, in the other room, a bunch of dust had been kicked up. "Just the cavalry."

With trepidation, the villains all turned around slowly… only to be met with the sight of the hybridized Omni-Hunters looming in the room behind them. Lionheart, Manny, Helen, Ruby, Ilia and Penny were flanking the team as well, but in the lead was Blake… who was wearing a rather interesting hoodie. It was grey and, in red lettering, it had the words; "BAD BITCHES RULE" down the front, which Sun was left stunned at.

'I don't know WHERE Blake got that… but she ROCKS it.' the monkey boy thought to himself.

"PSYPHON!" Blake hollered at the top of her lungs, her glare boring into the villain with righteous fury. "YOUR CHICKEN-LIZARD LACKEY RIPPED MY BRA!"

Immediately, Psyphon became MUCH more concerned for his wellbeing, whipping his head up to a rather scared Liam. "You did WHAT to the Appoplexian?!"

"PREPARE TO DIE! GRRAAAAAHH!" With a mighty leap, Blake came flying at the group of villains, her hands raised and ready to wring their necks.

Psyphon, however, was quick to shove Liam right in her way, letting him take the full force of the hit as he shouted at Bubble Helmet and Fistina; "Well?! Don't just STAND there, you fools! ATTACK!" The two wasted no time in following his orders, and from there, the battle began.

…..

It didn't take long for the Worst and Rook to join in on the fight, the former moving to engage with Liam. The Omnitrix-bearer, however, went to find his girlfriend, which didn't take long at all. She, along with Weiss, Ren and Manny, were confronted by Bubble Helmet, who was beginning to charge up. "AH! Yang, the Shocksquatch dude can't attack if he's insulated!"

The Methanosian girl, while initially taken aback by his current form, smiled and gave a thumbs up. "I hear that, Green Boy!" From her palm sprouted three seeds that she quickly threw at Bubble Helmet's feet, and within moments, several thick vines burst out from the floor and wrapped around him tightly, stopping the electricity while constricting him.

"AAUGH! H-Hey! No fair!" But Bubble Helmet gasped in fear as Weiss suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Who ever said this was fair, Bubble Brain?" With that, she phased through him and froze him from head to toe in mid-scream, smiling toward Ren and Manny. "Boys, take it from here, por favor?"

Manny wore a conniving smirk as he punched his fists into his palms. "Oh, I'm game!" Ren nodded in acknowledgement as well before both boys came blasting forward, shouting as they went for their respective hits. Manny got the first punch, shattering the ice and the vines as he socked Bubble Helmet right in the gut with a massive uppercut. As he went into the air, though, Ren came leaping in with a big dropkick, sending him careening headfirst into a wall and knocking him out. "WOO! Hell yeah, man!" Manny high fived Ren as he came down. "Now THAT'S how ya do it!"

"Hm, not bad at all." Ren concurred, only for the insectoid ninja to spot the Worst out the corner of his eye. "Oh… oh gods, Ben, is that—"

"Yes, and trust me dude, you do NOT want to know." The Worst grimaced before hearing more commotion happening on the other side of the room. There, Fistina was rushing toward the group of Ruby, Ilia, Penny and Helen, morphing her body in a way so that her arms prevented them from escaping. "Ilia, Ruby!" the hero shouted, "The Mechamorph girl is vulnerable to electric shocks!"

As they heard that, both Ilia and Ruby's demeanors changed to ones of confidence, the former taking out her Lightning Lash while Ruby loaded a cartridge of Lightning Dust into Crescent Rose. "Now THAT we can handle!" As Fistina's fists came crashing toward them, Ruby scooped Ilia up with her Semblance and took them up high, getting them out of the villainess' reach before both took aim.

Ilia shot a spark of electricity from her weapon, stopping Fistina and making her scream in pain. "GYAAAAGH! W-What is happeneing?! AGH!" All the while, Ruby was landing shot after shot with Crescent Rose, making Fistina crumple to the ground. "H-How is this possible?!"

Helen gave a knowing smile to Penny, which she returned before the Kineceleran girl dashed up and began running around Fistina as fast as she could. "Ruby, Ilia, get clear!" Heeding her warning, the duo fell back right as Helen created a mini-tornado in the room, sending the paralyzed Fistina hurdling into the air.

"AAAAAAAGGH—" CLANG! Fistina ended up hitting the ceiling before falling back down, only to be kicked into the same wall her cohort had thanks to Penny's Blockbusters. Fistina was about to stand, however… only to be met with a pair of glowing cannons in her face. "…Oh no."

"Oh yes." Penny retorted, shooting her Crash Cannons point blank, sending Fistina clean through the wall. With a groan of agony, Fistina was left unconscious, to which Penny raised her arms victoriously. "Woo-hoo! Point for us!"

"Haha! That was great!" Ilia gave both Ruby and Helen a high-five at their job well done. "Nice one, ladies. Two down, two to go."

Helen craned her head over toward where Liam and Psyphon were currently fending off the rest of their teammates, concern etched across her features. "Hm, I hope they'll be alright…" She eyed Neptune, knowing that HE alone held the key to effectively taking Psyphon down… and yet he chose to fight the chicken-dino. 'More accurately, I hope HE'LL be alright.'

…..

"BA-KAAAAAWWWK!" Liam cluck-roared at his enemies as he swung his tail at them, only for all of them to tuck and roll out of the way. Blake, Rex and Neptune had proven to be quite annoying since he had been forced into battle with them by his boss, but he knew that they wouldn't be able to keep avoiding him forever. Not with HIS new and immense size, which he had grown quite fond of. He went to slam his fist down on Rex, only for the Petrosapien hybrid to catch it with both hands. "BAWK! Would you just sit still, shrimpy?!"

Rex responded by making his arms grow larger, their weight bringing Liam's fist right down into the floor. The EVO smirked as the chicken-dino bellowed in pain. "Hah, how's THAT for shrimpy?!" He made his arms normal-sized again before shooting several crystals into Liam's face, and while they bounced off, they still hurt and made him stagger back.

"Hah, okay, deep breath, Neptune…" the Orishan hybrid said to himself as he rushed to join the battle. "You can do this… just a little spray…" He held his palm out and a short jet of water came out, dowsing the floor behind Liam. Sure enough, the Vaxasaurian hybrid ended up slipping and falling straight onto his back and tail, which Neptune was elated at. "I… I did it! Holy crap, I ACTUALLY used water to my advantage!"

Rex gave him a thumbs up. "Ha! Nice work, Neptune! Blake, now's your chance!"

As Liam went to stand up, Blake wrapped her arms around his midsection from behind, though her ire was directed toward Rex. "LEMME TELL YA SOMETHIN', REX SALAZAR! BLAKE DOESN'T NEED YA TELLIN' HER WHEN TO TAKE HER CHANCES! YOU'RE LUCKY THAT THIS CHANCE IS TOO GOOD TO PASS UP!" With that, she gave Liam his second suplex of the day, sending him tumbling right onto his head. "AND ANOTHER THING—"

"Blake!"

And just like that, Blake was snapped out of her rage and whipped her head around to see Sun, the monkey boy running out of the hole and toward them. She smiled brightly as she waved him over. "Sun! C'mon and join the—ACK!" Just then, however, Psyphon came flying in from above, landing behind Blake and grabbing hold of her hair.

Sun and the others all gasped at once as Psyphon glowered a the Appoplexian girl. "You… you are undoubtedly the strongest member of this team…" He clenched his claws and began burning Blake's hair, eliciting a scream from her. "As such, I will dispose of you first."

"Get AWAY from her!" Sun leapt up and sprayed a web at Psyphon, only for him to send a stream of fire at it with his other hand.

"Hah! Don't make me laugh, boy. There's nothing you can—" CLANG! "AUGH!" Just then, Psyphon was suddenly blindsided by a massive punch, making him let go of Blake's hair and sending him careening into the wall. It didn't take long to recover, but whatever had hit him threw him for a loop. "Gah… what the—"

WHAM! Before he could get up, a powerful fist went crashing through the wall beside his head, leading his gaze up to see Nora glowering down at him. "Hey, Psyphon! Remember ME?!" The Talpaedan girl took Pyphon by his collar and flung him away, charging after him with hurtful intentions. "I'm the REAL strongest member of this team!"

Sun rushed over to Blake, who at this point was running around in a panic. "AAAH! Put it out! Put it out! PUT IT OUT!"

Rex shoved Neptune forward immediately. "That's your cue, dude! Do your water thing!"

"O-Okay! Blake, hold still!" Neptune called out, aiming his palms up. Blake fortunately stopped on a dime and spun around on her foot so her burning hair was facing him, allowing the blue-haired boy to dowse out the flames with no trouble.

…Unfortunately, it was too late. The ends of Blake's long hair had been severely burned by Psyphon's fire, with some even falling off after Neptune put it out. "Oh… oh no…" Sun covered his mouth as everyone else came over, only for them to gasp as well. Yang, Wiess and Ruby were especially floored by what they saw, though their concern for their friend was their top priority.

"Blake…" Yang walked up to her partner's side, with Ruby and Weiss trailing behind. "Are you okay?"

There was a short silence as Blake clenched her fists, her rage growing once again. "No… I'm not alright." She lifted her other hand up to take a fist full of her hair, much to everyone's surprise. "But lemme tell ya somethin'…" Blake extended her long claw and, in one swift motion… shink! She lobbed off her burned hair, leaving a messy bob cut behind and taking the entire team off guard as she glared at her new personal enemy. "PSYPHON'S GONNA BE EVEN LESS ALRIGHT! GRAAAAAHH!"

And just like that, Blake was after the criminal mastermind, leaving everyone else to gawk at what she'd done. "Dude… your girlfriend's bad ass." Neptune commented, nudging his best friend.

"Heh, I know. Hey, aren't we forgetting some—THING!" SLAM! From behind, Liam suddenly swept his tail down onto the entire group, taking them off their feet and allowing him to grab the Worst while they were all down.

"AGH! H-Hey!" the hero shouted as he struggled to get out of his grasp.

"NOBODY MOVE!" Liam roared. "Or else Tennyson gets popped!"

Yang glowered up at Liam, balling her fists as they erupted into flame. "You coward! Let him go right now or so help me—"

"You think I'm BLUFFING?! Well, I'm not, see?!" Liam gave a sharp squeeze around the Worst… only for an unexpected sound to come out. Squeaky! "…Huh? What the…" The sound even took the heroes off guard, with Liam's curiosity coaxing him to do it again a few times more. Squeaky-Squeaky-Squeaky! "My god, this is hilarious!"

The Worst, however, wasn't so pleased. "OW! C'mon man, not cool! Those are my ribs your crushing!"

"We gotta find a way to get him out of—huh?" Sun cut himself off when he spotted Lionheart sneaking up on Liam from behind, the monkey boy's eyes widening in surprise.

Squeaky-squeaky-squeaky! "BAWHAWHAWK! Oh, I could do this all day—AUGH!" Right as he was starting to enjoy himself, Liam suddenly found himself getting his eyes clawed at as something jumped on his head from behind, making him fumble backward. He made sure not to let go of the Worst, however. "AGH! Something's got me, something's got me!"

"Run, children!" Lionheart called out, not loosening his grip for a second. "I'll free Mr. Tennyson, you all help Miss Valkyrie and Miss Belladonna!"

As the others went to follow his advice, however, Sun was left stunned for a little while. The old Lionheart probably wouldn't have made such a gutsy move like that in the past, but now he was riding on the back of a Vaxasaurian and hanging on for dear life just to help out. '…Wow, I really haven't been giving him the benefit of the doubt…'

But, as Sun was staring at the scene before him, he failed to notice Psyphon flying in over everyone else, with Blake and Nora in hot pursuit as they barreled past him. The alien criminal noticed Sun standing by himself, and a wicked grin formed on his face. 'Oh, THIS will be satisfying.' He landed behind Sun, catching his attention, but wasted no time in pointing a single finger point blank at his chest. "Die, monkey."

Before anyone could react, Psyphon shot a powerful stream of fire right at Sun's chest, which sent him flying through the air upon impact. His wailing scream echoed throughout the room as he was sent straight into a wall, his yellow fur burning as his exposed flesh also charred as well. Everything seemed to go in slow motion for some while for others, time seemed to stop, all while Sun was knocked out from his head hitting the wall.

All the while, Psyphon laughed in utter jubilation at what he had just done. "Ahahaha! Oh, that was very satisfying. NOW these fools will see that I am not to be trifled with and—"

"You…"

"Hm?" Psyphon peered over his shoulder… and immediately wished he hadn't. Blake's expression had become darkened, her body trembling as she kept her head low. Nora quickly stepped away and hid behind Ren, which was all Psyphon needed to know… 'I may have made a grave error.'

"You… hurt Sun Wukong." Blake whispered as she brought her head up, revealing her eyes as they burned in righteous fury. "You HURT Sun Wukong!" She threw her head back and, from her maw, came one of the most guttural, most beastly roars that anyone had ever heard. No one had expected it, but before anything else could happen, Blake was off like a shot on all fours. Psyphon blinked and she was right up in his personal space, where she quickly grabbed his face and threw him across the room.

"AUGH! W-Wait, we can discuss—"

"You!" Psyphon was surprised to hear another voice as Neptune came barreling toward him as well, charging into him shoulder first and slamming him against the wall. "You blasted my BEST FRIEND!" With a disgusted sneer, Neptune raised his hand. The last thing on his mind in that moment was his fear of water. All that mattered was justice for what the bastard in front of him did to Sun. "Prepare to be drowned." With that harrowing statement, he unloaded a torrent of water directly onto the hybridized alien, effectively drenching him and putting out his flames.

Psyphon, already in shock, found this to actually be somewhat painful. "AGH! No, stop that!" He thrust his hand forward to summon his flames… but none came. "No… NO!"

Neptune glanced behind him, seeing Blake coming toward them. "You get what you deserve. Blake, he's all yours." And with that, the blue-haired boy dashed off to help his friend leaving Psyphon to his fate.

The criminal continued to sputter water out of his mouth, but didn't have time to react before Blake's hand clamped around his throat. "LEMME TELL YA SOMETHIN', PSYPHON!" Blake screamed in the alien's face, before punching him in the head and chest repeatedly. WHAM!"You can hurt ME!" BASH!"You can hurt the things I STAND for!" CRACK!"You can even hurt my feelings if I HAD any!" CRUNCH! Several bits and pieces had fallen off of Psyphon at that point, leaving him in a daze. "But no one—AND I MEAN NO ONE—HURTS SUN WUKONG!" Blake threw Psyphon up into the air and leaped up after him, doing a thrust kick in midair that sent him straight down into the floor.

Yang went over to inspect the damage, seeing Psyphon's unmoving, unconscious body laying in the crater Blake had made. The Appoplexian girl herself was still quite mad, though, and she went in to do even more damage. "Ah! Blake, no!" Yang dashed in front of her partner, holding her hands out and standing firm to stop her with an embrace. "Stop, stop! It's over, you got him… you got him…"

"N-NO! He HAS to pay! H-He hurt him! HE HURT HIM!" Blake's angry screams slowly transformed into small whimpers, her rage becoming frustration and then giving way to sadness as she came to her senses. As she wept, she slowly reciprocated Yang's hug, her tears soaking into Yang's plant-like skin. "H-He hurt him. A-And I was too late t-to do anything, I—"

"Shh, shh… it's okay. We'll get him to Jaune." Yang reassured, rubbing gentle circles into Blake's back. "We'll get him help as soon as we can. But right now, we need to check on him to make sure he's okay, right?"

"Snff… r-right…" Blake rubbed her nose and eyes, trying to compose herself. Yang took her by the hand and led her over to where her boyfriend landed, with everyone else already there to take care of him. Neptune had successfully put out the fires, leaving him with singed fur and some sever flesh burns across his body. Thankfully, he had regained consciousness, though, from his eyes alone, Blake could tell that he was still somewhat out of it. "S-Sun?"

The Arachnichimp boy blinked and brought his sights up, smiling the moment he saw her. "Blake… hey."

Blake's lips quivered and she fell to her knees, carefully pulling him into a hug. "I'm SO sorry! Psyphon was too fast a-and I couldn't do anything to—"

"Hey, hey… it's alright."

"No, it ISN'T!"

Sun slowly lifted his arms, latching himself onto his girlfriend. "Blake… I heard that you kicked his ass." He heard her choke out a "yeah", which prompted him to kiss her on the cheek. "Do you know how awesome it is to have a girlfriend who's as much of an ass-kicker as you? Not only did you kick HIS ass, but I've got no doubt in my mind that you can kick the asses of ANYONE who wants to mess with you."

As he kept speaking, Blake couldn't help but crack a smile. "Hehe, Sun, please…"

"It's true. Hell, you can kick MY ass, and I KNOW you can, speaking from experience."

"Haha! Sun, stop!" Blake flicked her boyfriend's nose. "What're you trying to—"

"I'm trying to cheer you up." Sun gave a two-eyed wink to his girlfriend. "That's what a good boyfriend's supposed to do, right?"

At that point, Blake didn't care if there were people watching them. She had to take advantage of this moment. She brought Sun in for a kiss, which only lasted for about two seconds before she pulled back and beamed down at him. "I love you. Sun Wukong, I love you so much, it isn't even funny."

Sun ignored the excited sounds of their friends around them and simply reached up, cupping Blake's face. "I love you, too, Blake Belladonna. And I'm gonna make sure that you know that every single day." With that, the two went back into their kiss, earning an uproarious cheer from the crowd.

However, the celebration didn't last long as someone cleared their throat up above. "Ahem!" The teens brought their attention upwards to see Luhley, floating in the air courtesy of Robucket. "Apologies for interrupting the tender moment, but has anyone seen Ben?" She pulled out a regulator from behind her. "I believe I've found the part that will fix this whole mess."

"Oh yeah, he's—" BOOM! Before Rex could finish that, Liam came smashing through another wall, finally falling over as Lionheart kept clawing at his eyes. This caused him to let go of the Worst, who went tumbling around until he landed right beside their group. "Oh, right here. Hey, amigo! Luhley's brought somethin' for ya!"

The Worst brightened up, getting right up to his feet. "Oh, PLEASE tell me this is the right part!"

Luhley floated down and went right up to the hero, popping the Omnitrix core open. "Only one way to find out!" The Galvan girl slid the regulator into the core and slammed it back down. All at once, the Worst was engulfed in a bright green light… along with Psyphon, his crew, and the rest of the Omni-Hunters. Within seconds, they had all returned to normal, making them all let out a victorious cheer.

"HAHA! Yes! I'm me again!" Weiss exclaimed as she leapt up into Rex's embrace. "And you're you again!"

"Hah, phew." Ren sighed in relief. "Glad that's the case. I wouldn't have been able to handle bouncing around like that forever."

"D'aww, man!" Nora bemoaned, pouting at her normal arms. "I wanted to KEEP my jackhammers!"

As the light faded from him, Ben, now back in his normal body, gave a content sigh. "Sorry, Nora, but things had to go back to normal eventually…" He saw Yang approaching him, and he was relieved to see her normal, non-petal-covered face. "Hello there, Goldie Locks."

"Hiya, stud." Yang greeted with a kiss on his lips. "Glad you're back to normal."

"Same can be said for you." Ben trailed a hand gently through her hair. "Your Methanosian form is rad, don't get me wrong, but I like you for you."

Yang placed her forehead against his, nuzzling his cheek. "Glad we're on the same page… but you've still got some unfinished business." She pointed over to Liam, who while not a Vaxasaurian anymore, was now holding his own against Lionheart. "You know what to do, babe."

"Oh, you bet." Ben gave her a quick smooch on the cheek before going into the battle as well, bringing up the Omnitrix core. "Yo, bird brain!" This distracted Liam long enough to where Lionheart got a hit in on his stomach, making him double over. "Say cheese!" Within seconds, Ben activated the scan function on the Omnitrix and a yellow beam of light skimmed over Liam, giving Ben exactly what he wanted as the Omnitrix said;

"Avianoid DNA successfully unlocked."

Liam gave a worried squawk. "Ba-kawk! Uh oh…"

Ben saw a new icon pop up on the Omnitrix, resembling the head of a bird-like alien. "Uh oh is right, Chicken Little. The Omnitrix is fixed, I've got a new alien, and you've just triggered my "flight or fight" response..." Ben made the core pop up and he pressed it down immediately, enveloping him in a flash of green light.

Once the light died down, there, standing before everyone, was an alien that was very similar to Liam; a humanoid bird without wings and instead having talons for hands and blades coming out of his arms. However, aside from that, he appeared to be based on a much different species of bird. His feathers were mostly dark brown with some white ones on his belly, as well as tall, white ones sticking straight out of his head. His beam was bigger and sharper than Liam's and he wore a green headpiece over his eyes, resembling a winged mask. His torso was adorned with a green strap vest which had the Omnitrix at its center, with matching bracelets and anklets around his biceps and claves.

The new alien cocked his head to the side with a big, toothy smile as he spoke in a rugged voice; "…And I am a flightless bird." Without wasting a second, the Avianoid performed a thrust kick straight at Liam's chest, sending the chicken man tumbling backward.

"Woah, cool!" Ruby pumped a fist. "Ben's a Blaziken… fused with a Gallade, I think."

Ilia smiled in amusement at the comparison. "Well… that's one way to put it. But I don't even think he's a chicken."

"Indeed." Penny concurred, searching her databanks. "He more closely resembles a chickenhawk to be accurate."

Overhearing this, Yang and the Avianoid eyed one another, the gears turning in their heads before both exclaimed at the same time; "KICKIN' HAWK!" Before either of them could celebrate the new name, though, Liam came back with a vengeance, delivering a punch straight to his face. "GAH! Oh, really? Gonna blindside me like that?!" The newly named Kickin' Hawk raised his talons for battle. "Well, let's see how YOU like it!"

From there, both Avianoids went into close-quarters combat, hitting one another with expertly timed kicks, punches and even blade strikes against one another. Before long, Kickin' Hawk managed to block one of Liam's punches and redirected his opponent away from him, leading him to trip up and get kicked down to the floor. "What's the matter, Chicken Boo? Not man enough to fight back?!"

"BAW-BAWK! I'll show you!" Liam spun around on the floor and kicked up, hitting Kickin' Hawk straight in the chest and sending him skidding away across the floor. Liam came charging straight at him and went to knee him in the face… only for Kickin' Hawk to suddenly lay down. "W-Wha—" CRACK! "GAH!"

With a powerful kip up of his own, Kickin' Hawk sent Liam straight up into the air, before then doing a powerful jump to follow him. With a midair spin and one final kick, the hero sent his adversary flying straight into the power core's center orb, where it shocked him upon impact. Liam fell limp to the ground, breathing, but unconscious as Kickin' Hawk landed on his feet. "And THAT, my friends, is how you make the feathers fly!"

The team erupted into jubilant cheers as Yang went up and high-fived her boyfriend. "Woohoo! Great job, Green Boy! Way to finish it off in style!"

"Yes, very emphatic and all that." Blake remarked as she and Sun stepped through the crowd… revealing their rather sorry states. Sun was still covered in several burns while Blake… was utterly disheveled. Her pants were in tatters and almost falling off of her, with nothing on her feet while all she had for a top was the "Bat Bitches" hoodie. Said hood was also covering her head, hiding the damage done to her hair. "But right now, Sun needs a doctor while I need clothes and a good hair stylist, STAT."

…..

About an hour later, power had been restored to base, along with communications and the security grid as well. This allowed the Plumbers to finally get in touch with Gwen, Kevin and the others, who wasted no time in getting right back over to them. Of course, they along with Cooper, Caesar, Team CFVY, Ironwood and Winter were all greatly concerned… though when Coco saw the state of Blake, she nearly had a heart attack. It didn't take long for the fashionista to whisk her away, intent on fixing the damage that had been done.

Sun, meanwhile, was undergoing Jaune's Aura Amp to heal his burns quicker, though ultimately, some were intent on staying on his chest. "Gah, sorry man, but I don't think those are coming off." Jaune apologized, the knight now thoroughly exhausted.

"Ah, no worried, Jaune." Sun gave his fellow blonde a nudge to the arm. "I'm honestly not too bothered by it. Consider it a souvenir from this experience."

"Well, at least you'll never forget this day because of that, I suppose." Pyrrha commented. "Though to be fair, I don't think ANY of us will be forgetting this."

Just then, Kevin came over and jumped into the conversation. "I'm STILL not over how WE managed to miss all of this action! I mean seriously!" He thrust his hands toward his team in disbelief. "You guys transformed into hybrids of Ben's aliens and we weren't able to see it?" He pointed to his girlfriend. "WE actually had experience with that! We could've been SO useful here!"

Gwen sighed and gave a shrug. "Yes, Kevin, I'm aware. But, what's done is done and at the very least, all of the criminals are back in their cells." She glanced over to the door where Coco and Blake had gone through. "I do feel bad for Blake, though. Being an Appoplexian is one thing, I speak from experience, but… she a good chunk of her hair."

"Hm, that is quite disappointing." Velvet concurred, wearing a hopeful smile. "But don't worry, if there's anyone who can fix this, it's Coco."

Neptune gave a small chuckle at that. "Heh, yeah, who knew she was good with fashion AND hairstyling?"

Cooper winked, wearing a cheeky grin. "Oh, Coco has a TON of hidden talents, trust me." But, at his word, he received a slew of incredulous stares, to the point where some were even staring slack-jawed at him while others, namely Yang and Nora, were smirking and giggling like maniacs. …And yet Cooper had no idea what was going on. "What? Did I say something?" He saw Ben facepalm and the hero moved up to whisper something in his ear… and when he did, Cooper's eyes immediately bugged out, his cheeks becoming beat red. "AAAH!" Cooper waved his hands frantically at the others, wishing he could take back what he said. "Oh god, n-no, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Too late, you've dug your own grave, Cooper." Ben deadpanned as Yang and Nora burst out laughing, much to the genius' chagrin.

Thankfully, Cooper's torture was short-lived as Coco reentered the room, standing half-way through the door so it would stay open. Sun immediately stood and spoke up; "Well, Coco? Were you able to help her?"

The fashionista gave a sigh, placing her hands on her hips. "Gotta admit, this was probably the worst hair disaster I've had to deal with… but I think I did a good job." A smile adorned her lips as she leaned her head back, peering off behind the doorway. "C'mon, Kit Kat, ya gotta show 'em sooner or later."

After a few seconds of waiting, Blake slowly emerged from behind the doorframe, looking rather nervous as she kept her hood up over her head. Not only was she still wearing the same hoodie, but now she wore a set of matching grey sweatpants and a pair of white sneakers, her old clothes and gear having been completely destroyed. She was immediately greeted by Sun, who beamed down at her brilliantly. "Hey."

"Hey. You okay?" Blake spotted the one burn mark left on his upper right pectoral, her eyes widening in concern.

"Ah, yeah, that one's not comin' off." Sun shrugged. "But hey, doesn't bother me. Serves as a reminder of what a crazy day this was."

Blake reached up, tracing her finger around the burn's outline. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really, actually." Sun denied. "But what about you? How'd Coco handle your hair?"

The cat girl sucked in her lips, feeling nervous about the big reveal that was bound to happen. "She… had to cut it short. Not a lot could be saved so we agreed it had to be that way, but…" Blake pulled the draw strings of the hoodie, tugging it closed around her face. "I look even MORE like my mom now and it's SUPER embarrassing."

Sun's grin didn't falter as he reached out and gently took her by the shoulders, showing his support. "Hehe, Blake, to be honest, it doesn't matter to me who you look like. You're still you, even if your hair is a bit different now." His hands trailed up so that they were cupping her cheeks. "So please… would you show us the end result?"

"…Hm." Blake leaned into her boyfriend's touch, her confidence shooting up considerably at his words. "Hah, okay… let's do this." She pulled her hood out and then gently moved it down, revealing her new bob cut to the world and her friends. It ended just above her shoulders, and because it was shorter, her cat ears seemed to be more pronounced than before. "Well… what do you think?"

The absolutely astonished expression on her boyfriend's face was very telling to Blake, as was the blush he was now sporting. As her gaze trailed across everyone else, she saw that they were also either taken aback or left with ecstatic grins, with some others even blushing as well. Yang was even covering her mouth, her eyes glistening as she stared at her partner. "Oh. My. Gosh." The Blonde Brawler pulled her hand back, marveling at Blake's new hairdo. "Blake… you are—"

"SO FREAKING CUUUUTE!" Ruby and Weiss echoed, their eyes shining at how adorable their friend's new hairstyle was.

"On that, we can FULLY agree." Ilia added, attempting to hide her pink spots.

"Woo! Now THAT is how ya do hair, Blake." Swift came up and gave Blake a playful jab, all while flipping her own short hair as well. "Welcome to the Bob Cut Club, sister."

At that, Ilia's eyes widened as they darted between Swift and Blake. 'Oh my god, do I have a thing for bob cuts?'

Blake wore a nervous grin as she nodded to Swift. "Um, thanks… a-and thanks again for letting me borrow this hoodie, Swift." She pulled on the hem of the shirt, glancing down to the "BAD BITCHES RULE" lettering on the front. "I don't know if I would wear it out in public, but—"

"Hey, it's no problem." Swift winked. "I get where you're coming from. And hey, feel free to keep it. It suits you, Belladonna, especially after today."

"Oh, I don't know about that—oh!"

Swift suddenly put an arm around Blake's shoulders, poking her in the cheek. "Hey, you beat the tar outta Psyphon, who used to be Vilgax's right-hand man. As far as I'm concerned, that makes you the baddest bitch on the block."

Blake blushed madly at that, attempting to hide her face as everyone else burst out into laughter. As that died down, however, Yang walked up and put her own supportive arm around her partner as well. "Hehe, don't worry, Blake. Point is, your hair looks amazing, and anyone who says otherwise is trying to fool themselves." Blake peaked out from behind her sleeves as Yang pointed at her. "And that includes you, so be more positive about yourself or I'm not taking you clothes shopping later."

The cat girl narrowed her eyes at Yang… though her curled lips belied her façade. "Heh, alright Xiao Long, you win." She nudged her shoulder against Yang's playfully. "But only because you're my best friend."

"And proud of it." Yang and Blake shared a fist bump, only for the doors to suddenly open up. Stepping through came Ironwood, Winter and Max, with Lionheart following behind with his hands once again shackled in energy cuffs. He didn't seem too disheartened by the position, however. In fact, he seemed rather pleased, which was interesting to the group. "Hey there, guys. How's it goin'?"

"It goes well, Yang, thank you for asking." Ironwood bowed his head to the team briefly before peering over his shoulder toward Lionheart. "In fact, I just got through a rather pleasant conversation with Leonardo here."

Now THAT made most of the team do a double take. "A pleasant conversation?" Ren echoed.

"Uh… weren't you mad at Lionheart about a month ago?" Nora added.

"I was… and a part of me still is." Ironwood admitted, his expression becoming a bit more serious toward the lion man. However, Leo's own features mirrored the generals, giving him a nod, which Ironwood reciprocated. "But, after a conversation about his time served here and learning what he did for you today…" The general cracked a small grin. "I have to say that he's come quite far in such a short amount of time. So much so that I've decided to give him a chance to make amends for his actions."

Lionheart returned the gesture, bowing his head respectfully. "And I am very grateful for that chance, James. I know that it will take time to earn back your trust…" He glanced over to Sun and Neptune, who smiled softly back to him. "But rest assured, I will do my best to do just that. And that extends to you boys as well, along with all of my former students… and hopefully Ozpin as well, wherever he may be."

Ruby brightened up as she explained that part; "Oh, he's actually on a space-travelling adventure with Professor Paradox… er, well, at least Oscar is."

The lion mutant hummed in thought. "Hm, Ozpin's reincarnation, yes. Well, should he arrive on Earth, please tell him that I would like to talk with him, if at all possible."

"We'll make sure the message is passed along." Ben assured, placing a fist on his chest. "You can count on it."

"Thank you, Mr. Tennyson." Lionheart took a deep breath and set his sights on Ironwood once more. "So, shall we be off?"

"Hm, yes, there's still plenty to get done back in Vale." Ironwood concurred. "Though before we leave, we should wait a little longer to see if—AH! What in blazes?!" All of a sudden, directly in the center of the room, a shimmer of light shined before leaving behind a rather large, metal crate on a floating platform, complete with a push handle.

The Omni-Hunters and the adults were taken aback by the sudden arrival, to say the least. But Cooper seemed to have an idea of what this was, so he approached the crate, finding a holo-viewer sitting on the top. The genius reached out and pressed the button on the side, activating the message as a hologram of Azmuth emerged;

"Cooper, I've put together the parts you've requested for your project and have carefully organized them in this containment unit." The First Thinker explained, gesturing down to the metal box before pointing a finger up at the blonde. "Now, I expect you to use the UTMOST care in handling these. The parts for the Nitro Dynamo engine are particularly volatile, so be sure to handle them cautiously. The Lewodans will have their crystal refinement device delivered to the Plumber base within the week, so be sure the team will be there to intercept the transfer." He placed his hands behind his back and smiled up to the young genius. "Once again, I wish you, Caesar and Gwen luck on this project, and I anticipate seeing the results. Azmuth out."

With that, the message ended and Cooper took a deep breath, unlatching the crate's lid to see what was inside. Sure enough, everything he needed was there. "Hah, awesome…"

"…Cooper?" Max piped up, eyeing the boy in concern. "Why do you need to build a Nitro Dynamo engine? That's at least Level 7 alien tech!"

"I know, Magister Tennyson." Cooper acknowledged, closing the lid as the team wore curious faces. "And I know that it's powerful stuff. But trust me when I say that what we're building is going to knock your socks off… if it works, that is."

Ben couldn't help but be inquisitive himself, smirking at his friend. "Level 7 tech, huh? …Cooper, you're not trying to outdo my watch, are you?"

"HA! Yeah, right, maybe when I'm as smart as Azmuth, which will be never." Cooper laughed off, shaking his head. "No way am I trying to outdo or even rival the Omnitrix, Ben. Even if I built the greatest invention the Earth has ever seen, it'd still pale in comparison to the Omnitrix." He set his hand down on the metal crate. "But… with any luck, with these materials, we'll be able to create a device that can at least help us stand a chance against Vilgax if by chance you aren't around."

Ben's eyebrows rose at Cooper's confidence. "Huh, you're that sure it'll work, huh?"

Cooper bit his lower lip worriedly. "Well… I'm also prepared if this idea ends up failing in spectacular fashion, just so I'm not too disappointed if it ends up blowing up in my face." He folded his arms with a small exhale. "If that happens, then I'll take what we COULD create and reincorporate it back into the Centurion Project."

Yang peered closer to the containment unit, wanting to sneak a peak at what was inside. "Okay… so what exactly IS this device supposed to be, huh?"

"Ah-ah, no peeking, Yang." Coco slid right in front of the Blonde Brawler, winking down at her. "It's a surprise that stays between Tech Head, Team CFVY, the general, Winter, Caesar, and Gwen and Kevin."

Ben craned his head toward his cousin and best friend, who were decidedly glancing away from him. "So THAT'S why you guys got called to that meeting, huh? What exactly do you have to do with this project?"

Gwen curled her finger around a stray lock of hair. "Oh, you know, Cooper just needed some… magical help, that's all. My part won't come until later, though. He and Caesar are gonna be doing most of the technical work."

"Si, correcto." Everyone's attention was brought back to the door as Caesar himself entered with Rex behind him. The young scientist was now sporting a suitcase at his side and a backpack slung over his shoulder, much to everyone's surprise. "This project's gonna be a big undertaking… so that means I'm gonna be leaving for a little while."

"H-Hold on, really?!" Weiss said, snapping her head toward Rex. "And you're okay with it, Rex?"

"Oh, heh, yeah I'm good." Rex waved off, with him and his brother exchanging knowing grins. "Besides, after he explained what he and Cooper are working on, I'm MORE than happy to let him go off to do this."

Yang seemed rather irritated as she snapped her head toward Coco. "I thought you said you guys had a whole secrecy circle going on!"

"I did… but Cooper gave Caesar permission to tell Rex if it lessened the blow of him leaving." Coco shrugged.

Rex and Caesar walked over to Cooper and Team CFVY, the EVO offering his brother and the blonde a handshake. "Guys, I know we probably won't see you for a couple of weeks because of this whole thing, but lemme tell ya… if this project is a success, it'll be well worth the wait."

"A couple of weeks, huh?" Ben let out a sigh and placed his hands to his hips. "Well, I guess that means this is goodbye for now, huh?"

"For a little while, yeah." Cooper nodded. "But hey, we'll be sure to keep in touch over the ID-Comm, and trust me, we'll need to if this project's gonna be a success." He craned his head over to Gwen and gave a thumbs up. "Gwen, let us know when the Lewodans deliver that refinery machine so we can send over the Dust, okay?"

"Of course, Cooper." Gwen obliged. "But for now, take care of yourselves, okay?"

Fox and Yatsu gave simultaneous salutes. "Don't worry, we'll make sure he eats."

"AND sleeps." Velvet added, making Cooper deadpan. "Don't give me that look, not with the several all-nighters you've pulled."

Coco knocked her hand against Cooper's chest with her own serious stare. "Yeah, not happening again, Tech Head. I don't care HOW badly you want this project to succeed, you're not running yourself ragged to do it."

Cooper's shoulders slumped and he nodded dutifully. "Hah… yes, hon."

Ironwood clapped his hands together as he took to the center of the group. "Alright then, well, if that's all settled, I think it's time we head out." He gave a salute to Winter with a knowing smile. "Now Winter, I'm sure you still know your mission."

"Have a relaxing time on Earth." Winter sighed, saluting back with an eyeroll. "I am very much still aware of my vacation, sir."

The general chuckled and said; "Good, now make sure you don't run Kenny ragged." The white-haired woman blushed as the room briefly burst into laughter once again, before Ironwood extended a hand toward Caesar. "Caesar, if you'd please."

"On it, general." Caesar reached into his duffle bag, pulling out the Dimensional Doorway. "Okay, guys, just so you know, I'm taking my personal Dimensional Doorway to Remnant with me." He pointed over to the nearby door. "But I've also left one with Luhley, just in case. I've shown her how to operate it, so there should be no problems there, comprende?"

"Got it, Caesar." Ben affirmed. "If anything ends up happening, we'll let you guys know."

As Caesar went to open the rift, however, Lionheart moved over to Sun and Neptune briefly. "If I may for just a moment… I know I told you boys this already, but I want to express my gratitude once again. So…" He bowed his head to the two boys. "Thank you, for giving me this chance to make up for my past actions."

The boys from Team SSSN reciprocated in kind, bowing to him as well. "Hey, it's no problem. Honestly, after the way I acted, I kind of owe you the benefit of the doubt." Sun rubbed his neck, feeling guilty over the whole thing. "I never gave you the chance at first, but now… I see that you're genuine about making a change, and I can respect that."

Lionheart smiled down at them, extending his paws. "I hope our paths cross again someday."

"Same here." Neptune and Sun shook hands with the lion man before the blue-haired boy nudged his head toward the portal. "Now you should probably go. They're waiting on you." Lionheart gave them one final nod before joining the departing crew and, after one final round of farewells, the group walked through the rift, with Caesar and Cooper taking their project parts with them.

After the portal closed, though, Sun went straight over to Ben, the hero catching him out the corner of his eye. "Hey, um… thank you for that talk back there in the vents." Sun wore a embarrassed grin as he scratched his cheek. "I was being such a jerk to Lionheart before that, but your advice really helped me out."

"Ah, it's no problem, dude." Ben waved, shaking his head. "Believe me, I've had moments like that, too. Sometimes, it takes my friends talking some sense into me before I end up making the right decision, so I've been in your shoes LOTS of times before."

"Heh, I'll bet." Sun raised his fist to Ben. "Still, thanks."

And Ben knocked his own fist against Sun's. "No problem, man. …Hey, while our girlfriends are shopping, you wanna come over and play some video games or something?"

A determined smile came to the monkey boy's face. "Oh, NOW you're speaking my language! Neptune, wanna join in?"

"Oh, you know it!" Neptune spun around to the rest of the team. "What about you guys? You in?"

"Actually, if it's all the same, I think we've had enough excitement for one day." Jaune raised his hand in refusal, glancing over to see a rather tired Pyrrha and Ren. "I think we're gonna head back to Gwen's house and just crash."

Ruby nudged her head over to Swift. "Yeah, and we're just getting started on the Owl House, so Penny, Ilia and I will stay here with Swift for a little while longer. You guys have fun, though!"

"HAHA! YES! More for me" Nora bounced over to the boys, taking Sun and Neptune by the shoulders. "I'm down for a round of games, boys! BRING IT!"

"Ah, what the heck? Count me in, too." Rex shrugged, stepping over next to Weiss. "Might as well take the opportunity, right?"

As the team decided where they all wanted to go for the afternoon, Yang and Blake went over to their boyfriends to say a brief goodbye. "Well, if that's settled, then Blake and I are gonna go hit the mall…" Yang leaned up and pecked her boyfriend's lips. "But of course, if we're talking video games, I'm expecting a round of Batman Arkham Asylum when I get home, okay, Green Boy?"

Ben wholeheartedly agreed. "Oh, you bet, Goldie Locks. Count on it."

"And you…" Blake prodded Sun's chest with her finger, giving him a sultry smile. "Don't get too absorbed into those games. After all, I want you to see my new gear when I come back, okay?"

"Heh, that's MORE than okay." Sun leaned forward as Blake rose up, their lips meeting once again. The kiss lasted about ten seconds before both of them parted, with Sun holding Blake's chin by his finger. "I'll see you later."

"Oh… you will." With that, the group all went up to street level before going their separate ways, ready to put the craziness of the past few days behind them.

…..

Meanwhile, however, in an abandoned hotel on the other side of Bellwood, a certain cult was continuing to hide out in plain sight, leaving the Omni-Hunters and the Plumbers none the wiser. The massive group of people had been hiding in the run-down hotel since Saturday, and needless to say, some of them were beginning to grow stir crazy. Many of them, especially one of the leaders, wanted to get out their NOW and start spreading their message, which said leader was trying to express to his cohort; "D'aw, come ON! We've been stuck in 'ere for DAYS!" Scaled bemoaned, slumping back in his chair as Bishop continued to pace the room. "Ain't it close ENOUGH to start—"

"NO!" Bishop growled, slamming his hand on the table and causing Scales to topple over. "We begin the operation when the master SAYS we can begin. Remember; we follow the orders of the Exalted One to the letter."

Scales rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Ya know, I'm sorta gettin' tired of callin' him "The Exalted One". You know who he is, I know who he is—"

"But it's important to keep the followers from NOT knowing who he is… at least for now." Bishop argued, getting in his cohort's face before scanning his eyes across the room. "You never know if anyone in our ranks could be working undercover as a spy for those Plumbers."

Just then, the door to their room opened, and they were greeted by a distorted voice; "A very wise assessment, Bishop."

The duo gasped and stood up straight, addressing their master; "Exalted One! You have arrived…"

A tall, hooded figure entered the room, with most of his face obscured by the hood while the rest was covered in some sort of device with a speaker over the mouth, which was used to change his voice. "Indeed, and I bring excellent news." With his hands behind his back, the "Exalted One" stepped over to the nearby balcony, setting his gaze over the town of Bellwood. "It is nearly time to begin putting Phase One of our plan into motion…"

"Hah! You mean…" Scales gasped in excitement, "we actually get to DO stuff now?!"

"Yes, that's right, Scales." The Exalted One nodded with eagerness laced in his own voice as well, extending his hands toward the town. "It's finally time to spread the word of our mission, and hopefully…" He clenched his hands into fists, one of which was accompanied by the sound of metal on metal. "We will be able to show this world EXACTLY who their so-called "heroes" really are."

…..

A/N: Well, there's your hook for the next season, ladies and gentlemen; the Exalted One finally shows himself in-person and is ready to put his plans into motion. The Collective are done hiding, and are prepared to come into the light. But what exactly ARE this man's plans for the heroes and for the world in general? We shall have to wait and see…

In regards to the rest of the chapter, though, it seems everything went reasonably well aside from some hiccups along the way. Sun's got some burns from the experience and Blake's clothes are ruined, but thankfully there's been no major permanent damage to anyone… aside from Psyphon's face, more than likely. That'll teach you to mess with an Appoplexian's boyfriend, ya jerk!

But speaking of Sun, I think it's safe to say that he and Ben had a good bit of bonding this chapter, especially in regards to Ben giving him advice on the Lionheart situation. And because of that advice, Sun's come to soften up on the lion man and is now willing to give him a chance at redemption, so huzzah! Things seems to be looking up for Leonardo, who even seems to be slowly earning Ironwood's trust back as well.

And in terms of Blake, because of this whole experience, she's getting a pretty significant change to her character design, since now she has her new hairstyle from Volume 7 and 8. Not gonna lie, I find the bob cut adorable, even if it WAS a bit jarring at first. But over time, I've come to realize that Blake with short hair kind of works. I can't say the same for some of the other Atlas haircuts, but Blake's a good exception. Also, very nice of Swift to loan Blake that hoodie… even though it's lettering is pretty suspect, hehe… But now, Blake is Yang's canvas in terms of new hunting gear, so look forward to a shopping spree when we get back!

Also, let's hear it for Neptune in making great strides to overcome his fear of water. Of course, seeking vengeance for a friend WOULD push those worries to the back of his mind, but hey, he definitely drenched Psyphon quite a bit

But man, talk about alien debuts in record time with these two chapters. We got Walkatrout, Pesky Dust, Molestache, the Worst, and of course Kickin' Hawk to finish the line-up of this season. I'm especially happy for Kickin' Hawk since, in my opinion, he's kind of an underrated alien. He's THE best hand-to-hand alien that Ben has and it definitely shows, so I look forward to using him more. Also, during his stint as the Worst, did ya catch the reference I put in there with Liam squeezing him? Hehe… classic.

But, in the end, Psyphon's plan was foiled and Cooper and Team CFVY have returned to Remnant with Ironwood, Caesar and Lionheart in tow. We won't be seeing them in-person for a while (given that big project), but they'll still make some appearances over the ID Comm here and there. So, what does that mean for the NEXT season? Well, come back in April to find out, because NEXT TIME, we see the results of Yang and Blake's shopping spree… where BOTH ladies end up buying some new gear for themselves. After that, however, things end up turning upside down… as Bellwood is set upon by a horde of Grimm. Salem seems to be putting HER new strategy into motion, and you can bet our villains will be taking plenty of advantage. Thanks for reading, everybody, and I'll see you all in April! And as always; stay safe out there!

P.S. Rest in Peace, Kevin Conroy. You were vengeance, you were the night… but you will ALWAYS be Batman.