Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 50: It's About The Journey.
Mikd'lty; Deep Space; March 26th, 2024
After twenty-minutes of recovering from their utter beating; Ben, Gwendolyn, Sunny, and Albedo slowly exited the temple shamefully, unsure of what happened to Ten Million who was supposed to be the holding Aggregor off. It was a shock to find him half-dead with three-feet of ice sticking out of his upper-chest, "Ben!" he shouted to his own counterpart as a surreal feeling crawled down his spine to shout your own name at someone else and expecting them to answer. Ten Million didn't hesitate to grab hold of his black and white tee as soon as he was within reach, likely saving his last breath for this one message. Ben's older and wiser-self pulled him in close as the blood spilled from his lips, staining his beard, "Do not… let Aggregor… win…" he coughed up more blood barely capable of breathing on this planet in the first place, "And if he does win… you h-have to use him. No matter the risk, y-you have to promise me."
Ben knew exactly which form Ten Million was referring to, the dwellers of his home and most powerful form of sentient life in existence and it was so mighty it scared the hero to death to ever need actually to use it, "Promise me!" he shouted with his last breaths, pulling Ben in tighter so their eyes could meet.
A single tear welled in Ten Million's eyes as he felt death finally coming for him, "I promise, I'll do whatever it takes to stop Aggregor!"
Ten Million looked turned his head in the snow and looked out at the star that was unbearably close to the planet yet, so radiantly beautiful, actually forming a tear in his left eye, "so this is what it feels like…" he whispered to himself as his body fell limp.
"Ben? Wait, what about the cube and all your important stuff?!" He gently shook his counterpart but, he was motionless on the ground staring out at this planet's Sun.
His cube was not far and still transparent waiting to be piloted along the single habitable zone on the Planet, "Ben?!" he almost panicked, asking nobody knowing he lost another good soul, the old man's grey eyes had drifted off into the sweet embrace of death, shuffling off his mortal coil. Ben slowly leaned forward and closed his eyes with his fingers, allowing him to finally rest, before standing up, and staring down along with the others.
"We should take the cube back to the Forge and figure this out from there…" Ben summoned the map to each planet the pieces were hidden on from his Omnitrix, tracking in his head how long it'd take to reach each one, "I haven't seen my daughter in over a week, I constantly work so it could be even longer than that, and now I have to go on some quest to save the Universe again when I haven't even gotten to spend more than five minutes with her," the map dissipated and Gwendolyn took his hand in hers as they headed back towards the inter-dimensional cube. "We need to get this done so we can go home."
Albedo didn't look away from the corpse, "If we do not, there will be no home to return to," he pointed out, raising the stakes even higher.
Gwen turned his attention back to herself, trying to distract him, "We'll explain everything to her, take her to a water-park or on a cruise; we'll make it up to her but, right now…" she pulled her husband's eyes up from his shoes in shame, back to her glimmering emerald eyes with a confident smirk, "We have a Universe to save."
Ben's grimace slowly turned into a small but very hopeful smile, nodding in agreement, "You always seem to bring out the best in me; alright, let's get out-" he finished by finding his attention back on Albedo and Sunny whom still stared down at the dead hero, unsure of what to think about how he had lost.
Albedo and Sunny quickly followed suit, watching with somber eyes as his body was impaled and disrespected, "We need to give him some sort of proper burial," she mentioned to Albedo but, she was talking mostly to herself, for an Anodite, death of any kind was unheard of and tragic.
Ben took a few steps back towards them, looked around at the wasteland, barren, and calm, and then back down at his older counterpart now that he was at peace, "I think this is exactly where he'd want to be… somewhere nice and quiet," he cringed for a second before restating himself, "Except for the whole being impaled thing," he muttered realizing how sadly his life had ended.
Sunny softened her expression, using what little manipulation of matter she possessed to melt the frozen shard pultruding from Ten Million's upper torso, allowing him to fall back into the snow.
While Gwendolyn used her telekinesis to dig a small body-sized hole in the ground, Albedo dragged his twin by the arm away from earshot of the ladies; "What has happened here is unprecedented, how do we possibly proceed?!" he shouted in his best whisper, luckily not alerting either women as they levitated the heroes body into the hole they dug for it.
"Okay, first of all, take a few steps to the left towards the uninhabitable zone of the planet, and chill…" Ben advised as he threw an arm around Albedo's neck, pulling him in close, "We have this handled, beside we don't wanna spook the girls."
Albedo smacked his hand away, frustrated by his nonchalant attitude, backing away a few steps but, only to begin shouting with no concern for who heard them, "Ben Ten Million was more powerful than either of us, he had more skill and experience as well… how could you possibly still believe you can succeed?!" Gwendolyn and Sunny didn't finish filling the hole instead turning around and focusing in on their argument, prompting Ben to walk away back towards the grave.
"I'm Ben Tennyson, remember? I can do anything," he said with a deadpanned expression, sliding down into the hole with his deceased counterpart and unlocking the prosthetic Omnitrix core, pulling it out of the mechanical hand. He stared at it like it weighed a metric-ton, tunneling into his heart and brining forth feelings of shame and regret.
Albedo approached the hole from above as Ben pocketed the core, not looking up into his own judgmental crimson eyes, "So was he," is all he said as he nodded down at the dead-man lying cold, on the ground beside him.
Ben put his hands on his hips and cleared his throat, "This is different."
"No, it is not!" Albedo shouted with eyes of burning red splayed against the darkened cosmos blanketing around his perspective from the literal grave of his own counterpart. "In fact, if anything, the likelihood of success has dropped tremendously."
Sunny and Gwendolyn watched as their teammates quarreled like brothers, "We have three more tries before its endgame, we grab one piece and guard it with out lives, it'll work out…" though the hero didn't sound so sure, his twin challenged him regardless.
"How can you have such unearned optimism!? You died tonight, maybe you do not feel his death but, I-"
"Of course I feel it!" Ben's eyes instantly flashed an uncontrollable emerald with energy cascading through his veins from the Omnitrix, floating out of the hole calmly to land in the snow in front of Albedo, "But, what would you rather be doing when you die? Fighting to protect everything and everyone you love?" gesturing not only to Sunny and Gwendolyn but, the very Universe that surrounded them, "Or lose hope and quit, getting lost in your own suffering until the end?!"
Albedo narrowed his eyes, still staring into the glowing neon-green energy the poured out of the heroes pupils, waiting for an answer, Ben answered himself instead, "I don't know about you but, I knew him…" he referred to himself lying in the icy grave, pointing down briefly, "And he would kick my ass sideways if he found me moping about his death instead of avenging his murder," he finished with a flare, trying to get his point across to all of them. "This," he pointed at himself, "Doesn't mean that this is over! We still haven't lost!" he shouted into Albedo's face with a visceral rage, understandably irate he could assume Ben would feel nothing watching himself die.
The former Galvan finally spoke up with folded arms, ignoring the emotional part of their argument for the sake of getting on with the mission, "The question still remains; how do we intend to stop Aggregor?" he pointed out very clearly that he hadn't given a proper response or strategy.
"We'll have to figure it out on the way; Aggregor has a head start and now we know that next-to nothing is going to be able to defend those pieces," Ben turned away with his breath billowing out into the cold air, passing Albedo, and walking back toward the inter-dimensional cube which brought them here in the first place, "Let's see if two Galvan's working together can get this thing off the ground, yea?" he emphasized the working with one another part to deescalate the situation, enough time had already been wasted.
Albedo rolled his eyes, dropping his arms in surrender, and following Ben back towards the cube, which was vaguely camouflaged but, still barely visible to the naked eye. Sunny giggled to herself, forming a large, hand-held, snow plow out of pink mana energy prompting Gwen to smile, turning back from the boys, "What?" she questioned.
"I dunno, I just thought it was a little funny," as the mana-construct shoveled the snow into the grave for her, they both stared back at the twins walking side by side back to the interdimensional vehicle, "They even fight and make up like brothers."
Gwendolyn found that funny as well, giggling a little herself, "Yea, they really do…"
Walking along the habitable zone was like standing next to the oven and watching the baking process from the glass outside, an inch over the border could quite literally turn a person to ash. On the other hand even a few hundred feet passed the temple and his body, even as super-human as it had become, would have suffered from hypothermic shock in seconds.
"What do you think about all of the stuff on that ship?" Gwendolyn asked as Ben looked down at her from the blended arctic-white platform leading into it, "Are you gonna keep any of it?"
"I cant just park it in the Forge and pretend it doesn't exist, if anyone finds it at any point in history it could pose serious problems," Ben explained, being that the Forge of Creation exists outside of time, any one at any point in time from any Universe could potentially access it. "I guess I'll figure that out on the way too."
…
Deep Space; March 26th, 2024
After both watch wearing heroes worked together as Ultimate Greymatter, they were able to operate the ship and set coordinates from the device left on Ben's Omnitrix into its navigation system. It turned out that even at several hundred-thousand times the speed of light, the cube would take them nearly a week to reach the next destination. It appeared its teleportation function was only able to process the cube and its contents through dimensions not through space itself, so it flew manually across the Universe. Based on the time it took Aggregor to get to Mikd'lty from Earth, they should be able to arrive either before or simultaneously with the tyrant himself at specific coordinates of a structure but, not one nearly big enough to be a planet.
"Hi sweetie, I know it's been a really long time but, we miss you!" Gwendolyn spoke into a virtual message recorder scanning her whole body for a holographic projection, floating in front of her lie a spherical-drone the size of an apple, "Your Dad is here too, Ben!" she grabbed him and pulled him in front of the device that recorded them, "I'm recording something for Jennifer, just in case this takes longer than we thought…" she whispered into his ear as he then faced the camera-drone, taking hold of it.
"Hey, Jenny, listen I'm really sorry I haven't been there for you but, when I get back, I promise I'll make it up to you!" his voice was optimistic but, Gwen could feel the guilt and uncertainty that plagued him, ignoring it for the sake of the recording.
"We love you!" they both said as the drone shut off and the little-red-light faded, hovering over, and plopping into Gwendolyn's open hand.
"How long did you say this would take to get to her?" the Mother asked towards the Evolved Negative Greymatter currently piloting the cube with his mind; Ultimate Greymatter had a much larger head that made up the majority of his body, his brain pushing out from the front. He used small arms and legs to telekinetically and telepathically control both the ship and his own red hovercraft which keep him afloat. He wielded a third eye on his forehead, and barreled turrets on the hovercraft for offensive capabilities.
The Evolved Galvan rotated three-sixty to face Gwendolyn while still controlling the ship with his mind, gesturing with his skinny-arms, "At the speed in which we are moving multiplied by the distance and signal strength from the cube, divide by the speed of light… almost forty-eight hours," he finished his response and turned back around emotionlessly to continue piloting, one of the drawbacks of this evolved form was its lack of empathy.
She looked down on the miniature drone and pressed down on the send button, sighing disheartened by the fact that she wasn't even sure if she would live long enough for the message to reach its recipient.
Ben could get lost walking through the cube, it was so physics-defyingly vast on the inside versus how it appeared on the outside; he stared pensively at the glass casings filled with relics, weapons, and trophies from battles he'd never get the chance to learn about. Staying as far away from Vilgax's head as humanly possible.
Putting his hand on the glass casing of the single golden, gleaming Helmet he overheard Paradox and Ten Million argue over once before when they first met the latter; he wondered what made it so powerful, he pondered the same question with all of the rare and supposedly fierce items in the ship.
Sunny approached him from behind in her human form once again, so deep in thought he didn't notice until he saw her in the reflection of the glass casing with said Helmet inside, "You gonna put it on and see what it does?" she asked, conversing so closely with her human form felt odd, she was nearly identical to his wife in every way aside from the color of their eyes and hair.
This unnerving feeling didn't stop him from answering politely and honestly, "No, I don't even know what would happen…" he looked away from her deeply into the casing where the Helmet sat.
"I could tell you, Mr. Ten Thousand," chimed Gideon in her soothing tone, from what they had to assume was the ceiling which startled them as she'd been silent since they'd stepped on the cube, forgetting all about a futuristic A.I to interact with.
"Wait," Ben stopped and backed away from the glass casing to stare upwards along with Sunny, who seemed also just as confused considering it took even the heroes almost an hour just to get the cube off the ground, "Gideon? You're online?" he asked specifically.
"I don't understand, I never went offline."
"Then why didn't you help us fly this ship when we left the planet yesterday?" He asked in a bit more of a frustrated tone, gesturing up at the ceiling with his hands.
"You never asked, Mr. Ten Million specifically programmed me-"
Ben cut her off with a long sigh and a cold understanding, "I get it, he doesn't want to be disturbed very often so you only chime in under certain circumstances," he reasoned.
"Precisely, the spirit which lives within that Helmet is very noble however just as dangerous, if you were to put it on I do not anticipate he would ever let you take it off," her soothing English accent somehow made it less offsetting hearing that the Helmet Sunny suggested using would possess him forever if her were to try using it.
"So, if I asked, you could tell me everything about… all of this stuff?" He gestured around the room at the glass casings. "You can tell me how he got everything?"
"Of course, I'll accept any command from Ben Tennyson or his invited variant," it seemed the keyword was 'invited' considering while trying to get it to fly, also meant the pair of evolved Galvan saw the list of the cube's few banned riders. Unsurprisingly, Eon was first on the list followed by several versions of himself he didn't recognize but, most of them were different Ben Ten Thousands.
Ben turned back to Sunny and nudged her arm, having heard everything and still unsure of what to say, more focused on not looking at the floating head in the jar ten-feet-away, "Are you sure you don't wanna run that by Gwendolyn? Sounds like a lot of this different stuff was taken from reality for a reason."
"Nah, I just want to learn about myself, what's so wrong with that? Like, how complicated could his life have been?" He asked Suny aloud with a forced nonchalant attitude, finding it harder to come up with a reason not to tell her. "Like… okay? Gideon, other than Aggregor what was Ben Ten Million's last battle against?"
"That would be in his home timeline, during the Limax Wars of 2017."
"Are there any recordings or media of this alternate past-war?" Ben asked and almost immediately regretted it, prompting a feeling of dread that welled up in the back of his throat, like it was difficult to breathe with how much stress was on his back and couldn't risk lying to Gwendolyn. Still, his curiosity peeked and the artificial intelligence responded with its obligatory response summoning a hard-light holographic projection of some-sort of security feed. The clip was short as a city on Earth was descended upon by thousands of alien ships, an armada which came from across the known Universe. The buildings were taken quickly in the swarm as explosions light up the large skyscrapers in what appeared to be some version of New York, most recordings were first-hand eyewitness accounts, so this bleak video was all they had to go on. "There is only one other record that exists involving the Limax Wars, would you like to see it?" he continued to watch the city burn as the fire from the clip reflected off his eyes.
His attention was snapped back to focus on the question, "S-Sure," Ben answered, Sunny watched his expression changed when a final virtual-video recording opened in front of them showing the final battle. The video was cut every few seconds with static but, between those moments a battle was taking place; familiar slime-like creatures with their organs fully visible slaughtered an army of Plumbers and human soldiers alike without mercy. There were a few with abilities, a few he recognized as a version of Rook Blanco was impaled from behind, Grandpa Max had his arm viscerally torn off his ligaments, and Gwendolyn held a domed shield over herself, she seemed much older but, a horde of the creatures bombarded her shield until it broke and she was consumed by the group. "Gideon, shut it-" the horde dogpiled this version of Gwen where he could only assume she was eaten alive, considering that was their plan when they invaded Aunt Vera's home.
"Ben, I…" Sunny looked away as the slaughter continued, covering her mouth so she wouldn't vomit.
"Shut it off, that's an order!"
"Of course, Mr. Tennyson."
The feed cut off and dispersed, leaving the two cousins in utter silence; Ben shoved his hands in his pockets, "Gideon, where was I when that video was taking place?"
"Mr. Ten Million was busy combatting the Emperor of the Limax armada as an Evolved Cascan on Earth's Moon."
"Cascan?" she asked.
Ben glanced to her before turning away, "It's Overflow's species. No wonder he gave up the hero life, no wonder he didn't have it in him… being a hero took almost everything from him," his stare drifted over to the array of artifacts surrounding him.
Sunny placed a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to face her, "Maybe I should go see how the others are holding up?"
Ben nodded in agreement as her hand slid off his shoulder with her uneasy retreat back into the large cockpit-living area; he took a step back, his determination began to overwhelm his better judgement, "Gideon, I want to see it all. This history around all of these items, and how Ben Ten Million got them."
"Right away, Mr. Ten Thousand."
Ben took a step back as a ten-foot-wide cylindrical form surrounded him in holographic images each one a different item held in his alternate selves archives, "Where would you like to begin, Mr. Ten Thousand?" scanning through the massive multitude of virtual selections.
"Let's start with…" Ben pondered deeply, looking around at all of the possibilities before selecting one in particular, "The Green Lantern ring?" he stated almost as a question since he couldn't understand why a glowing emerald ring was amongst his belongings.
…
The Next Day
Deep Space; March 27th, 2024
Gwendolyn was levitating a foot or two off the ground with her legs crossed, hands placed firmly on her knees, and her eyes closed spite the neon-teal light peeking through her shut eyelids. Images flashed within her mind, not breaking her focus but, pulling her towards something which felt familiar. Voices echoed from across the void in her mind, shouting in pain and agony, begging for their lives. The images strobing within her psyche became more vivid until…
The explosions behind her wrought flames from the ground which threatened to singe her already bright orange-auburn pixie-cut hair, feeling the warmth against her cheek prompting her to get out of the crater she'd made with her body on impact with the ground. Lifting her head up from the dirt revealed a dizzy and unbalanced world as she struggled to get back to her feet, regaining her focus on the battlefield where the entire town-square had been ravaged by the fight. "T-This again?"
A black and white blur of a speedster dashed passed her with a gust of wind that blew her teal cloak out in front of her, "Ben," she whispered to herself, now sure it was him. He hadn't stopped to address her, almost as if she'd been here the entire time spite not recalling how she even started this day let alone made it to this fight. Instead, XLR8 circled around someone who she couldn't quite make out yet floating above him, obstructing her already unclear view with a cyclone torrent of wind forming a thick tornado around him. Who she knew now was definitely Albedo stepped forward, already transformed into Negative Heatblast, and igniting the funnel of rapidly moving air with intense flames weaved within it.
"What is this…?" Gwen murmured looking over her hands as though it felt real yet, somehow just a dream.
The burning whirlwind surrounded the supposed enemy for a moment as Gwendolyn took a look around at the destruction, it was only then that she noticed multiple trashed Plumber tanks amongst the rubble, which she knew now was the wreckage from the ringed hourglass atop Tennyson Tower. Lying amongst the chunks of asphalt with no sign of the actual building in sight, likely under her feet as ash no doubt. "It's almost exactly the same as before but, what is it trying to tell me?" she spoke aloud into the smokey distance.
A shockwave erupted in an omnidirectional fashion from within the blaze, dispersing it and consequently blowing back Ben and Albedo in opposing directions. The villain landed on the ground slowly as if he controlled air itself, looking almost reluctant to be doing any of this, "This day extracts a heavy toll, you should ask yourselves, why didn't you simply give me what I wanted?" He was big, almost fifteen-feet tall, and appearing to have a familiar mutation to that of their late comrade Kevin Levin, almost as though he were made of multiple different species only, not as many as ten. Possibly just five. His torso was composed of an armored green substance like a turtles shell, his arms came from a species with the strength to create earthquakes with only their punches. His legs were adorned with a crimson crustaceous material like the armor of a crab, and his head was generating volts of neon-blue electricity across his neck and forehead.
Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes, "Aggregor…" she watched XLR8, getting to his knees before struggling to his wheeled-feet slowly, trying his best to assume a fighting stance.
"You won't get it," Ben shouted, "You'll have to tear my arm off my corpse to get it!" he shouted out with his visor still down, though he didn't have the energy just yet to run.
"Oh, I intend to," he ensured, "Trust that, but I would have preferred to not shed unnecessary blood. I didn't want to kill your friend or the others," he gestured to his body as though the mutated-features were brand-new to them all and lives were taken to achieve that form, "but, they were in my way." It was only then that she was lucid enough to notice he wasn't gesturing to his body, in his sharpened-clawed right palm were three-quarters of the relics they were gathering now.
Gwendolyn was still confused, making the same mistake, and tripping over a shard of concrete, landing on her hands and knees over the remains of a broken window where she could see her reflection. She now was wearing her normal haircut, she knew for a fact in her first vision that her had been longer but, something must have changed, "T-The sign, there was a sign," she said to herself, glancing around at the wreckage noticing a flickering neon-sign from the front of their building lying among the concrete. It was flashing the news for the day on an endless loop including the temperature, some stock points, as well as the time and date.
"April 5th 2024…" she muttered to herself and right on cue, the sky cracked open with a sonic boom clapping through the atmosphere, Gwen looked back up to see a woman made entirely of pink flowing energy rocketing through the smoke-filled sky. She was enraged and her furious glare was radiating with violent energy that erupted into a powerful magenta aura lighting up the sky around her with purple lightning.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Sunny exclaimed in a bloodcurdling rageful shout, cupping her hands out in front of her as she attempted to grip her opponent with her aura by firing a beam to encompass him. She wanted to crush him back into a single-celled organism but, instead of forming into a cage around him, her energy slowly dissipated and fell apart. Her expression changed into shock and disbelief with her jaw widely agape, she was stunned as he was just glad his research had paid off after all.
"You already know that the Geochelone Aerio species can't be effected by mana, don't you?" He noted calmly, prompting her to float back still in shock, "In fact…" he used his right-palm to fire off a cascaded electrical current aimed for her only this time, she dodged and weaved in the air avoiding the blast.
"It's different this time…" she whispered, looking around to see if what would follow next was too the same outcome.
XLR8 exploded in a flash of emerald light, consuming his body as he emerged as an Evolved Vaxasaurian charging forth with his dark-green fist propped back and ready to fire a straight-jab, "AGGREGOR!" the aforementioned villain braced himself as he too reeled with his fist suddenly forming into a metallic-sphere that appeared similar to a wrecking-ball, colliding blows with the hero generating a shockwave that threatened the area. Gwendolyn didn't feel herself move, though she watched as she herself put up a domed shield, feeling very surreal. Her energy shield cracked as the shockwave shredded the surrounding buildings and concrete rubble, flattening what remained of the city in an outward omnidirectional blast; when the smoke settled and she looked for them again, what she found sent chills down her spine.
"He wasn't an Ultimate before either… this isn't just a dream; I'm seeing the future…?" she was so unsure but, going after Aggregor before Ben returned to Earth clearly changed the timeline somehow.
This Aggregor had his fist planted firmly on Ultimate Humungosaur's face lying in the center of a small crater, pulling back as the hero's Omnitrix flashed crimson and exploded leaving Ben Tennyson back in his human form, "I will shred your Universe down to its last quark and from the infinite nothing I will build a new one," he quickly summoned something from thin air with a flash of red light, his steel spear which he used before the mutation.
Ben backed away on his shoulders, dragging his injured lower body through the dirt as he looked up at the amalgam, holding the blade to his chest, "But, first I'm going to end your puny, stubborn world… and perhaps pay tribute to the Galvan on my way to claim the ultimate prize," Gwen's eyes widened as tears involuntarily streamed across her cheek when Aggregor drove his spear through Ben's heart as the two made vicious, personal eye-contact.
Blood spilled from his lips and trailed down his chin through his goatee, Ben spat at the titan standing over him twisting the spear while still impaling him, "No matter what… you do…" he sputtered, "You'll never… be… a god," the hero fell back as he exhaled his last breath and collapsed into the dirt emerald eyes staring off into the sky with no life behind them.
"NOO!" Gwendolyn collapsed from her levitated position, her head spinning as she noticed Albedo, now transformed back into his doppelganger form, and Sunny also in her human state; they were down on their knees checking on her, "Are you alright?" the former Galvan was the first to speak up.
"I'm fine, I just…" Gwen tried for a moment to stand back up but, cringed in pain and fell back, toppling to her side, and clutching hugging her arms across her chest, "Agh!" she shouted.
Sunny narrowed her eyes, looking over her aura, "What exactly were you trying to do? Because it certainly wasn't meditating…"
She didn't answer only cringed and groaned in pain any time she tried to move. "Gideon, are there medical facilities on board the ship?" Albedo asked aloud, after Sunny told her about the artificial-intelligence being perfectly capable of driving, he knew to ask the question rather than search for it himself.
"Yes, my thirty-second century medical laboratory is fully operational."
"R-Right, Gideon please lead the way," Sunny ordered as her eyes flashed bright pink encompassing her pupils with the glow, using her mana to carefully lift Gwendolyn off the ground as the metal-plated floor lit up with a line of neon-orange lights, guiding them through the cube.
"I'll take care of getting her situated, you go get Ben," she suggested as she began following the lights, Albedo nodded in agreement and left her side, making his way down the hall towards where he could feel his twin's energy.
He approached passed walked down a corridor passing many different doors, paying no mind to them, he only stopped when he found one open, as he approached the corner, Albedo heard voices coming from within so he held back for a moment to listen, "Telekinetic pulse, electro-ionic shielding, a variety of offensive capabilities, teleportation through time and space as well as through dimensions all built around a forty-third century tachyon bomb. Kang the Conqueror's Time Chair was-" He'd heard enough from Gideon as Albedo rounded the corner and found Ben staring up at a neon-blue holographic projection. It was a team of heroes; one suited in iron, and another swinging a thundering hammer, both assaulting an enemy in a golden hovering throne.
"Gideon, freeze video and time stamp," Ben quickly turned around, facing his himself with his hands on his hips, "What's up?" he asked nonchalantly, stretching his back.
"Have you not been listening across the ship?" he questioned, unsure of how he could have not heard his wife collapse and shout in agony.
"N-No…" Ben glanced over his shoulder and pointed vaguely behind him, "I've been a bit distracted, why? What happened?"
Albedo scoffed, "You should be paying more attention, leader," he finished with an emphasis, "Gwendolyn was meditating or, at least we think she was when she collapsed in pain. Sunny is taking her to the med-" before he could finish Ben sprinted away in a burst of speed leaving a trail of black and white, from his shirt, in his tracks. "Or wait till I am at least finished with my sentence…" Albedo did the same, dashing through the halls where the lit up floors led him to the medical unit.
When he arrived Ben was on his knees by Gwen's side with his hand in hers, clutching it tightly, "Gideon, scan her," Albedo said as he approached the hero of heroes, silently kissing his wife's hand as she laid unconscious in a futuristically-advanced hospital bed. An apparatus from the ceiling unlatched itself and hung down with a thin, wide opening which emit a light. It slowly scanned her from top to bottom for thirty silent seconds.
"Aside from slight dehydration, it appears Mrs. Tennyson is in perfect health."
It was then that Ben was actually startled as Gwendolyn shot up-right in the hospital bed, gasping for breath, she looked around at the group with a bit of confusion but, also a distant look as though she were trying to piece something together in her head. "Gwen, you okay?" Ben spoke up first, asking her the basic.
For the first time, she looked him in the eyes, slowly pulling her hand away, "I need to tell you guys something…" she mumbled, looking from her husband to her friend and then slowly over to her new-found cousin as well.
Albedo folded his arms across his chest as Sunny glanced at him, unsure of what to say or do, she unconsciously stepped a few times to the left where she could stand closer to him. After he saved her life on Anur Vladius, she couldn't help but feel safe with him close-by; she wasn't under the impression that Ben couldn't also save her if he needed but, the connection she made with Albedo felt like more than that to her. He noticed this, her shuffling closer and holding her hands behind her back as if she wasn't aware of it but, he could tell. He didn't know how but… he could.
Ben helped Gwendolyn to her feet, where she still felt too light-headed to stand without his assistance, "Since the night before Ben got home, before I ever met Aggregor, I've been having these nightmares only…" she stopped and rolled her eyes trying to find the words, "They aren't just nightmares, I think… I think I'm seeing the future."
Sunny narrowed her eyes, studying her terrified aura with her eyes, speaking up for the first time since she entered the room, "What do you see in these nightmares?" she asked.
Gwendolyn gulped as Ben noticed sweat forming over her brow, "I-I don't know, it's like someone nuked Omnitrix City and when I wake up in the rubble, it's Aggregor. You're all there. I watched him beat you all before…" she stopped, just thinking about it brought her intense pain and anxiety. While the premonitions themselves were harmless, she still couldn't unsee what she saw, twice now. "Before he kills you," she squeaked out as her voice cracked and tears ran down her cheeks, her eyes locked directly on her husbands.
Ben nodded slowly, a confused grimace on his face, processing everything she was telling him, "How do you know this is from the future, how do you know its not some alternate universe or-or-" she cut him off.
"The first time I was so confused I didn't know what to think but, this time… this time I looked for details. I saw the date on the broadcast screen from our tower or what was left of it," glancing around at the group now with tears still welled in her eyes, "April fifth… twenty-twenty-four…" she finished.
Albedo stepped forwards, putting a hand on her shoulder, he gestured at the bed, "You should lie back, let Gideon scan your brain just to be sure," she sniffled as Ben's hand separated from hers and she put her head back on the seat, staring up at the ceiling. The same apparatus began scanning her head from forehead to chin and back up again a few times, "What are you thinking?" Albedo asked towards Ben who had been uncharacteristically silent.
"Just processing my own death apparently, she's never been wrong before so I don't doubt that she saw what she saw and that its no tumor or hallucination," Ben rubbed his chin, standing beside his twin as Sunny stepped closer to him from behind, just to feel safe and to hear what they were talking about.
"As usual Mr. Ten Thousand, you are correct, I've found no signs of brain abnormalities or psychic intrusion."
Sunny raised her brow, "Heh, psychic intrusion?"
Albedo turned to look her in the eyes, her dark eyes that he could just fall into, "Mental attacks of any kind involve invading the enemies psyche much like when Vilgax would attack Ben's mind from afar as a form of intimidation."
Gwendolyn sat back up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, allowing her legs to hang over the cool metallic floors, "There's something else… the first time I had the nightmare I saw myself in a reflection and my hair, it was long… long like weeks or months had passed since I'd cut it. Just now though?" she paused, shaking her head as though she sounded crazy, "My hair had changed, it was like this again, and this time he had three pieces of the map already in his hands."
Ben took a deep inhale of air, before exhaling, clearing his thoughts before making a decision since his co-leader definitely wasn't in the mental state to be doing so, "Alright, so, If that was the future that means we probably took the one piece we found and tried to keep it safe in Tennyson Tower, right?"
Gwen nodded slowly as they all followed along, "I-I guess so, that was the first place I was thinking we could try hiding it."
"So, we change the future just like we did with Kenneth…" saying his name caused him to choke on his own spit, anxiously clearing his throat, "Ahem, I mean how we got a girl instead of a boy," he glanced downwards at his shoes, still recalling their final battle with Eon and how the villain robbed him of the chance to say goodbye to his only son.
Sunny took a step forwards to stand beside Albedo rather than behind him as they gathered around Gwendolyn who still sat on the edge of the hospital bed, "How do we go about changing the fucking future, exactly? That doesn't sound hard at all? The hell are you even talking about?" her sarcasm and vocabulary as crude as it was, proved a good point.
Ben chose to ignore her choice of words; he still hadn't had the talk about her vocabulary with her yet, "We hide the final piece somewhere far from anyone who could get hurt, somewhere completely abandoned."
"I'd suggest dropping it on Anur Vladius but, somehow I feel like he'd get around that planet's toxic shit too," Sunny folded her arms in disappointment, finding Albedo's hand on her shoulder for comfort while he explained an alternate solution.
"We could take it to Anti-Earth, where he will never be able to retrieve it," his explanation only left her confused though.
Ben shook his head, "We can't just leave it somewhere unprotected, if an alternate Azmuth could build a device that transports people across dimensions we can't risk Galvan Prime's safety by just tossing it over there."
Gwendolyn scoffed, looking down at her boots now, "And it's not like anyone can guard it aside from us, I mean, do you think the Galactic Enforcers have any resources we could use?" she finished her question by looking up into her husband's eyes.
"I can contact Synaptak and see if there isn't some secret fortress for items like these, or even just a planet somewhere out of the way where we can wait for him to come to us. On our terms," Ben knelt down to get to eye level with Gwen who gave him a fake smile through her smudged makeup, "Are you sure you're okay?"
She smiled up at him, raising her hand to place it against his cheek so she could caress his beard while staring into his eyes, "I'm fine… I just-" she choked as Albedo gestured for Sunny and himself to shuffle out of the room while they spoke.
Slowly they made their silent exit from the room, leaving the two heroes alone together, "Seeing that nightmare the first time, I didn't think anything of it. When I found out that Aggregor was a real person, I thought maybe it was just the Universe trying to warn me but," the tears returned as they swelled and sprinkled down her cheek, "Now we know its something that's actually going to happen and I… I can't lose you."
"You won-"
"I just watched you get stabbed through the heart! Twice!" she shouted in his face as the tears streamed now, flowing onto her lap as her lip quivered. "You don't know that taking the piece anywhere else will change that outcome, because clearly nothing we've done so far has changed it… it's only brought it closer."
Ben took her hands in his, pulling her focus into his eyes, the gleaming emerald jewels that matched her own only, filled with an abundance of optimism, "Gwen, we've changed history before… I mean, Omnitrix City looks nothing like it did when we traveled to the future eighteen years ago, and I definitely don't remember seeing any loving expression going on between our future selves."
As she gave it more thought, getting a girl first and not a boy wasn't the only way they'd changed history before, by falling in love in the first place they rewrote their own destiny. "My point is, no matter what happens, no matter what future we have to face, we will beat this. I will always come home to you," finally she smiled, pulling on their grip so she they could kiss, as her lips locked with his she felt safe, she felt like their love could overcome anything that stood in their way. A triumphant feeling which made her heart skip a beat, the heat rising to her cheeks, after everything she saw in that horrific nightmare he could still somehow make her feel lovingly sheltered and secure. Like everything would somehow still be okay.
Ben pulled away slowly, looking her in the eye with a mischievous grin, "Hey, Gideon, are there living quarters in here anywhere?"
"The hyper-cube in which I'm currently installed has an interdimensional space-wave generator, allowing it to be as expansive on its interior as is requested."
Ben blinked a few times, clearing his throat quickly, "So, that means I just ask you to make three rooms and you could do it?"
"Certainly, you can make any adjustments you like as any extra matter is composed of verbally programmable nanite microchips."
Gwen raised her brows as Ben turned back to face her, sometimes staring up at the ceiling to speak with Gideon just because it felt far more natural to do so, she gave him a smirk that matched his own.
…
Deep Space; April 1st, 2024.
Although Gideon formed three identical rooms complete with king-sized beds and linens, Sunny spent most of her time with Albedo in the room he chose; it wasn't like they were doing anything inappropriate they just clicked well so, they could spend hours talking with each other. Ben and Gwendolyn obvious had their own room though the latter would constantly find herself waking up alone, in an expansive and cold bed. Their circadian rhythm was completely out of whack considering there was no night or day traveling hundreds of thousands of times faster than light-speed, however; that didn't stop all four of them from attempting to get a full nights rest.
Gwendolyn opened her eyes in the darkness of the room, she'd been awake for some few moments but, was reluctant to open her eyes. Knowing he wouldn't be there. She turned over on her side pulling on the covers as her hand landed on the other side of the empty bed, giving a long exasperated sigh.
Ben was busy in the archives surrounded by bright blue holograms projections with Gideon narrating the next item in Ten Million's former possession, "Entities from the fifth dimension are capable of bending the laws of the lower dimensions such as Mxyz-"
"Back up just a second, what's this thing called again?" Ben referred to one of the glass cases in the same row as the Helmet and Vilgax's remains, a pedestal with nothing but a black-box with an odd circuitry design across it.
"Annihilarrgenesistoriathimiorgost, the Contemelia designed it to start or end Universes as they see fit."
Ben scratched his chin, taking his hand off the glass quite nervously, "Okay, so that won't be useful…" he muttered, hearing footsteps from around the corner, he turned to find the red-head standing in the doorway in nothing but a silk-robe, courtesy of the futuristic cube's fabricator capable of basically printing clothes.
"So, this is where you go every single morning…" she closed her robe and tied the thin strap around her waist, slowly approaching him from the door, "And where you spend almost all day, until you barely sleep."
Ben ran his fingers through his hair, looking down at his boots, not saying a word, "Have you even found anything that will actually help you fight Aggregor?"
"No, nothing that'll work for us."
Gwendolyn sucked her teeth and stepped closer, stopping in front of him and putting her hands on either side of his face, "We're supposed to be arriving at the coordinates in a few hours, you should be resting… not whatever this is," she gestured to all of the weaponry and trophies either physically in the room or stored elsewhere with its hologram floating in its place instead.
"Yea, I guess you're right," Ben let his hands clasp over hers still placed on his cheeks, small smiles appearing across both their faces, "You always bring out the best in me, I don't know how you do it."
Gwendolyn giggled a bit, her button nose scrunching up as she lowered her head to laugh just a bit, looking back up into his eyes with a seductive smile, "I have my ways…" she leaned in upwards, both of them turning their heads in opposing directions as they slowly met lips, her hands slowly finding their way over his shoulder with her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Excuse the interruption, Mr. Ten Thousand but, it appears we're arriving at the coordinates sooner than your compatriot calculated."
Gwendolyn exhaled as they parted, Ben cleared his throat with brows raised, "H-How far are we?"
"At out current velocity we should reach the destination within twenty-nine minutes."
Ben hung his head for a moment, Gwen simply watching as he regathered his strength and optimism, pulling himself back up, "Alright, Gideon can you wake the others up and let them know what's going on?"
"Of course, Mr. Ten Thousand."
…
Ben and Gwen walked through the bridge approaching the main living area where they'd spent most of their time lingering or otherwise killing time; before they reached the room, her eyes flashed momentarily bright neon blue before returning to normal. She stopped Ben with her arm out, pulling him towards the corner where they could observe the living space without being seen.
Gripping him by the shirt, she pulled him in close and placed a finger to his mouth, "Shh," she uttered softly, jamming her thumb behind her at the room.
When they peeked their heads into the room slowly, they found Sunny and Albedo already there and not asleep in their rooms like they'd thought. The former was in her complete energy form, which also subsequently meant she was naked, sitting on the ground with her hand on the latter's thigh. Their faces were interconnected by the lips, intertwining their tongues, both too busy with their eyes closed to notice the heroes watching them.
"I guess being cooped up in a ship for a week can stir up some feelings?" Ben whispered as he watched his own twin kissing a glowing energy deity who illuminated the room around them in a stunning way.
Gwen shook her head before whispering back, "I- I think they've been flirting since they met…?"
Suddenly, the dimmed lights flashed on brightly as a voice chimed in from the ceiling, "Ah, Ms. Sunny, Mr. Albedo, Captain Ten Thousand asked me to inform you of our arrival due sooner than anticipated," Gideon's voice while charming still surprised the two love-birds enough for them to gasp and separate faces as Sunny scooted back, taking her hand from his thigh.
"T-Thank you, Gideon," Sunny sputtered out as she was glad her glowing skin couldn't show an embarrassed blush.
Ben and Gwendolyn took this opportunity to round the corner they were hiding behind as if they saw nothing out of the ordinary, "Okay team," he announced aloud to all three of them. Sunny and Albedo standing up quickly and doing their best not to make eye contact with one another less they end up breaking their poker faces. "Before we get there, we need to stop going at Aggregor head on because, lets face it, it just isn't working."
Albedo spoke up, finally able to get his mind off of events prior, "Precisely, I was thinking the same so, I analyzed each species he absorbed from my Ultimatrix in order to narrow down a few plans of attack should we encounter him again," Albedo took a few steps towards the transparent wall he was initially steering from before Gideon took over. He summoned a holographic image of Aggregor's new mutated body, "It appears he's channeling the full powers from five distinct sources; the armor of a Talpaedan also giving him Terrakinesis," the hologram spun around giving calculated statistics on the bright-yellow parts of his body, "Being that their species routinely tunnel through to a planets core for warmth, it is of no great shock that nothing short of a planet's destruction could crack it."
Sunny chimed in, "I have enough power to destroy a planet, maybe I can-" she was stopped quickly enough when the genius refused.
"Absolutely not," Albedo didn't have to shout to sound incredibly serious to the point that it took the others aback, Gwen and Ben glancing to one another awkwardly, "Should he get his hands on you, your entire physical essence could be absorbed, we simply cannot take that risk."
Sunny furrowed her brow, "What risk? You think I can't do it? You think I'm some fucking slouch? I can pull my own weight, damn it!"
"My answer remains no; the risk is too-"
Sunny stomped her foot out of frustration shaking the cubed-ship currently flying thousands of times super-luminal speeds, "No, I get it, you can't risk me missing and him absorbing all of that power, sure, maybe if I was more capable…" she folded her arms until she heard the seething inhales the Galvan was taking, "Chill dude, I'm not gonna risk your entire plan with by butting in."
"I cannot risk losing you!" he shouted finally, across the room leaving Sunny shocked with wide eyes, her energy form slowly melted away, seeping back into her skin as her dark hair and eyes returned leaving her in a form almost identical to Gwendolyn's, "If Aggregor even scathes your skin, you will be lost to me- us forever. I will not allow it."
Sunny was baffled, maybe it was all of the wrong crowds she had been hanging out with prior to meeting him on Vladius, the gang members and intergalactic drug smugglers that Antonio would bring around… but Albedo, and the others for the matter, treated her in ways that she didn't think people could treat others. Did he actually really care about her? Being around Antonio and his friends felt more like being some guys arm-candy which he could use for sex… yet everyone she met on Earth treated her like she was actually a person, it felt so strange and foreign but also, nice. She walked passed Ben and Gwen and wrapped her arms around Albedo's torso, pulling him in for a tight hug which he was genuinely confused by, "thank you," she whispered.
Ben cleared his throat gathering their attention as Sunny took a few steps back, "Okay… lets get back on track," he said trying his best to subtly segway back into the main conversation, "I can handle hitting him with the force of an exploding planet, what about his other abilities?" he nodded at the screen prompting Albedo to show them the rest of his research.
The hologram spun and zoomed in on the harness-looking apparatus around his neck peeking over his pectorals, appearing much like the slits to a furnace, "He also has the temperature resistance and nucleokinesis of a Prypiatosian sub species, we need to be prepared for radiation-based attacks as well."
Gwendolyn spoke up for the first time, the others turning their attention to her, "I think I can cast an enchantment that'll give the four of us some minor resistance to radiation poisoning, it'll keep us from slowing down during the fight."
"Anodites don't get sick, not even from radiation, so you should focus the spell on just you three," Sunny pointed out receiving a dutiful nod from the mage in question.
Ben narrowed his eyes with a pensive rage held back behind vaguely glowing pupils, "What about the last three?" Gwen could feel the waves of anger pouring out of him in waves, she was surprised he could hold it in so well.
Albedo nodded, reaching out and touching the hard-light holographic image of their enemy to focus in on the hands and head, "His arms appear to be from an Orishan, other than having armored shells comparable to a Talpaedan, they also possess the power to launch intense torrents of water."
Ben nodded in agreement, recalling their last encounter with him, "Yea, and it's no ordinary firehose either, he could cut through solid steel with those…"
Albedo adjusted the hologram once again, "Leading us to his fourth victimized sample of DNA, an Amperi has the innate ability to control, manipulate, and transmutate into electricity," Aggregor's glowing turquoise head taunted them as they stared at the image.
"Water and electricity, the perfect offensive combination," Ben muttered as he continued to stare.
Albedo continued, "Yes, and while the Prypiatosian half can handle any temperature to an insanely high degree, the shell of an Orishan can withstand temperatures below absolute zero without difficulty."
Sunny scoffed, looking away from the image and back to the others, mostly putting her attention on Albedo, "So, he chose these five aliens not because of how strong they'd make him but, because of they're the only combination that could survive the places that hide the map?"
Gwendolyn frowned and sucked her teeth, folding her arms as well, "Well, he's smarter than we gave him credit for at least."
Ben put a hand on his doppelganger's shoulder, looking passed him at the screen as he took this gesture as a sign to continue, "And the last one?"
Albedo once again adjusted the hologram for their viewing, focusing in on the center of his abdomen, "Geochelone Aerio, known to the locals of their sector as spin-turtles, mostly peaceful species without prisons or war… their only innate abilities are-"
Gwendolyn saw flashes of her nightmare premonition at the sound of the name of that species, almost being able to smell the smoke in the air as she recalled it vividly. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Sunny exclaimed in a bloodcurdling rageful shout, cupping her hands out in front of her as she attempted to grip her opponent with her aura by firing a beam to encompass him. She wanted to crush him back into a single-celled organism but, instead of forming into a cage around him, her energy slowly dissipated and fell apart. Her expression changed into shock and disbelief with her jaw widely agape, she was stunned as he was just glad his research had paid off after all.
"You already know that the Geochelone Aerio species can't be effected by mana, don't you?" He noted calmly, prompting her to float back still in shock.
"They control wind and they're immune to mana…" Gwen spoke up before Albedo could finish though she was staring off at the floor when she said it, quickly glancing up to meet their confused expressions, "It was in my vision of the future, he totally wiped out a tornado like it was nothing a-and Sunny's attacks were useless."
Albedo tilted his head in thought before shrugging, "It does make sense, it must have been an added attribute he did not expect, meaning Sunny's best option is to focus on the artifact should Aggregor arrive," glancing his crimson eyes over at the long-haired young woman, she smiled this time, understanding his worry and the fruitlessness of fighting someone who would be immune to all her attacks.
She nodded delightfully, grasping her mission as best she could, "Focus on the piece, got it."
Ben finally took charge of the conversation, stepping in front of the hologram to speak collectively to all three of them, "If Aggregor does show up, I want first crack at him… I haven't given it my all against him yet and if I can end this thing without any more bloodshed, I wanna do it before this gets any uglier."
As they all nodded in agreement, having learned their roles and planned out their attack as best as possible given the circumstances, they weren't surprised to hear that they were out of time.
"Mr. Tennyson, we have arrived at the selected coordinates," Gideon announced in an almost chipper monotone.
"Huh, I don't see shit…" Sunny noted aloud from the only transparent wall behind the holographic display they were just using.
Gwendolyn sucked her teeth in frustration, "Gideon, can you please show us a three-sixty view of our surroundings?"
"Certainly," she responded as the other two walls beside them turned completely transparent along with the ceiling and floor, only one wall remained which lead further into the physics bending cube, being bigger on its inside than on the out. What they saw was shocking enough for all four of their jaws to hang loose in awe.
Directly above them was a massive, moon-sized, cubical object sticking out in the darkness of the void with its bright, paper-white exterior, "I-Is that…" Ben started to mutter but, couldn't find the words.
"It's a giant fucking square in the middle of space…" Sunny put it bluntly with her arms crossed.
The cube slowed to a stop in front of it, floating closely to the object in its orbit, "Gideon? Is there any way in?"
"My scanners indicate no structural openings."
Albedo put his hands on the walls of the ship, looking out now as they faced the enormous shifting cube drifting through space, "There must be some form of exit or entrance."
Ben paced around in a circle slowly as he stared down at the information given to him by his older variant, the holographic map detailing the structure they were observing, "Well, it's called the Perplexahedron and it looks like you need a piece of the map already in hand for it to recognize you and open up, or at least that's what I think it means," he dispersed the image projecting from the gauntlet Omnitrix over his forearm, "Everything's a riddle with these guys."
Gwendolyn put a hand on his shoulder, pulling her husband back first into her chest where she could use her other hand to massage his neck properly, "C'mon hero, what's our next move?" Ben laid into euphoric feeling of his tense muscles being loosened up by her firm yet dainty fingers caressing his skin.
His eyes shot open, stepping forward and breaking the massage, "I got it," he announced, "We just phase in, Albedo and I can transform, Sunny is pure energy, and Gwendolyn has a… phasing spell…" he paused for a moment, glancing away before turning back to her within the same second, "You do have a spell that you can use to phase through stuff, right?"
Gwendolyn giggled into her hands, "You are so cute, of course I do."
"There ya go, it's settled we'll just phase on in and grab the piece!" Ben seemed overly optimistic but, there was no sign of Aggregor which had to be a good sign for them.
Albedo popped the dial to his Ultimatrix embedded into the hand of his prosthetic forearm, summoning a Necrofrigian hologram in crimson light, "Gideon, please dock the ship in the Perplexahedron's orbit and keep it in place until we return."
"Of course, docking now."
Gwendolyn's eyes flooded with turquoise light, she clapped her palms flat together as a glowing ring of energy formed around her ankles, quickly rising up and mystically cladding her in the skintight nanomechanical titanium-weave armor. The Alpha Rune lit up the inside of the ship with bright purple light from the center of her torso just above her breasts, embedded into the suit itself.
Sunny's energy form reappeared from beneath her creamy Caucasian skin, her clothes vanished leaving her completely naked again though, the illuminated glow was so intense that one could hardly stand to gawk for more than a second or two at a time. Her hair became a long white-hot tendril of pure mana energy lined with violet light, "Are we ready?"
Albedo slapped down the hologram on his hand just as Ben focused in on his own Codon Stream via the Master Control; two bright flashes of emerald and crimson engulfed the room for moment, leaving in its wake Negative Big Chill and Ghostfreak with a bright green hourglass symbol on his chest, "Ready."
Gwen was only slightly off-put by seeing the Ectonurite again but, she knew that this really was just a slot of copied DNA and not the sentient maniac that took her body, "Tempus per!" her entire body sparkled with bright blue specks of dust raining down around her from thin air, "Now the crushing pressure of the void can't hurt me, I just hold my breath and float through."
"Good work, Gwendolyn, now let's go!"
Each of them phased through the side of the ship and out into the darkness of space, so quiet and empty, it was almost deafening; there was no moon nor a sun in any direction for light years, it was just a random object floating through obscure space. They reached the edge of the Perplexahedron and slowly made their way in, melding through the paper-white walls one by one.
Ghostfreak exploded in a flash of emerald light leaving Ben to look around at the blank and empty room they'd made their way in to, "Well, maybe this is just one of the back rooms?" while the room was quite large, there was nothing else to it, simply four flat surfaces with no doors or exits.
Negative Big Chill landed and cloaked himself in his own wings before a bright crimson shimmer engulfed him and returned him to normal, "I hope we do not have to punch our way through each and every wall," he noted.
"We'll figure it out, hopefully Aggregor is having a harder time with his piece of the map than we are," Ben responded, walking forwards and advancing into the middle of the empty room.
…
Piscciss, Planetary Core; April 1st, 2024.
"-This is an emergency broadcast, I repeat we under attack and require immediate Plumber assistance! Please, This is an emergency I repeat-" One man who appeared to be of the same species as Ripjaws, was clad in pear-white armor with a red emblem on the chest, he held a communicator in one hand and fired off a plasma rifle with his other hand at an oncoming enemy.
Magister Pyke was getting no response over the interstellar communication link, the bright crimson lights flashes above him reflecting off the waters below, being that he stood in the only chamber of air on the entire planet. Being that it was ninety-nine percent water, the planetary mass required a powerful object at its core to the electromagnetic field active. He dropped the com-link and gripped the blaster with his other hand, if he could sweat he knew he would be already, he could hear the sounds of blood curdling screams coming from behind the vault door which lead out to the other levels. Keeping the core of the planet safe was his number one priority even above protecting his own life, suddenly the screams fell quiet and the blaster fire ceased.
Pyke's heavy breathing couldn't be helped, even though he wasn't out of breath it was like all the spit in his mouth had dried up and he couldn't stop shaking, decades of training with his rifle and he still couldn't stop the shaking. He flinched when the vault door was pounded on once with a bang ringing out into the planetary core's chamber, keeping the pedestal which held one-third of the map in place behind him.
He gulped as yet another loud bang rung out from a fist pounding on the vault door between them, with a final swing Aggregor punched the door straight off its hinges landing flat in front of him. Stepping over several dead Plumbers at his feet, he paused when Pyke open fired with his level-nine plasma rifle set to its highest intensity, beams of blue light bounced off his armored torso without so much as flinching. The Magister gulped once again and lowered his weapon as the resulting smoke slowly drifted off his opponents chest, "That's impossible."
"Not anymore," There was a single bridge leading to the device keeping the planet stable surrounded by a moat of more water, Ultimate Aggregor slowly and nonchalantly walked across the bridge taking on more blaster fire from the determined Plumber officer. "How foolish, to keep the piece hidden by making it the only item that can keep your world from falling to apart… that time walker doomed you all from the start," he continued walking through the energy blasts as if he didn't even feel them, "He appeared to me once, many years ago, I was on a journey to find a stone tablet with the locations to each piece carved into it. Left by a species now long extinct," as he got into close quarters, the amalgam backhanded the rifle out of the Plumber's hands and grabbed him by the gilled throat, picking him up off his feet, "He told me that my quest for the ultimate prize was vein and insecure, that if I didn't give up I would end up beaten and humiliated," the Plumber looked into his eyes as they shimmered with crimson light, firing a beam directly through the skull of the officer in one shot, dropping his lifeless, smoking body back onto the platform where he slid slowly into the waters, face down.
Aggregor stomped forth and reached out, penetrating the stasis field holding the piece causing a powerful tremor to shake the entire celestial object, "Even though he vanished before I could strike him down I still know I am destined to prove him wrong," he spoke aloud to himself through grinding, clenched teeth as he forced his grip around the quarter-piece. He yanked back tearing it from the gravitational field as the planet quaked around him even more violently now. He floated up off the bridge as the shaking collapsed the structure which was using the piece into the pit of water below. He took off straight upwards into the water of the planet, only taking a few seconds to propel himself through several trillion gallons of water before finally escaping into the void of space. The Osmosion watched from only a few thousand miles away as the massive planetary ocean split apart, slowly drifting in every direction killing millions, floating off into the void where it would likely freeze.
"And when this is over and the day is won, it will be Ben Tennyson and his pathetic friends who are beaten and humiliated! Ahaha!" Ultimate Aggregor stared down at the second piece to the Infinity Map he possessed and took off into space cackling wildly.
…