Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 52: Barricade.
Perplexahedron, April 3rd, 2024.
"This whole maze, it served its purpose," Atomix muttered ominously, the outlines of his body surged with nuclear energy beginning to illuminate brighter until they shun so brightly, it nearly blinded Aggregor himself, who crossed his arms and braced for the incoming explosion. The charge built with the bright emerald energy consuming him and condensing within his body, within a single minute, Atomix charged a force of a nine-hundred-megaton nuclear bomb prepared to explode omnidirectionally. His eyes flashed first before the rest of his body was consumed with an eruption of bright emerald energy which consumed three-quarters of the Perplexahedron, the rest of which collapsed into pieces once the crown was removed the stability of the structure fell apart, drifting off in separate directions aimlessly.
Chromastone flew through the destruction and the void of space towards the hyper-cube as fast as he could, approaching prompted Sunny to open a slot for him momentarily so he could enter through, "Go! That won't stun him for very long…" Chromastone insisted before transforming back into his human form out of breath, Ben made his way to the center of the room, "Gideon, set a course for the Andromeda Galaxy, I'll narrow down the coordinates as soon as we get a bit closer," now turning his attention to his team.
"Aye, Captain Ten Thousand, destination set. Departure in fifteen-seconds."
Gwendolyn approached Ben who was bruised above the left eye and blood was clearly trying to escape his lips, only kept in his mouth to avoid showing weakness, "Are you okay? Do you even know where we're headed?" she asked with her fingers gently caressing his arm in an attempt to calm him down.
Ben took a long deep inhale before letting the air out slowly, "The Galactic Enforcers are on a mission of their own right now but, Synaptak did suggest several deserted planets with survivable atmospheres," Ben explained as he glanced up into his wife's eyes, her glimmering emerald jewels that made him melt ever since they were in high-school, "Good places to hide and defend the artifact, we're headed to the closest one."
As Sunny and Albedo mingled behind them, likely flirting, as Gwendolyn pulled Ben a bit closer guiding him only a few feet from the other two passengers, "Maybe we should bring Rook, Lucy, and the Plumber Helpers in on this? I mean, the four of us haven't exactly had the best luck so far," she giggled sarcastically, looking back at the piece of the map in Albedo's hand, "This is our first win since this started, shouldn't we-" he cut her off with a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Ben shook his head with his eyes closed, "Until the situation escalates, we need them on Earth, defending it while we can't," he grabbed Gwen's dainty hands and laced his fingers with hers, "I promise if things go bad, Cooper can teleport reinforcements across the Universe… I'm sure we'll figure this all out," she reassured as best she could.
"Brace for super-luminal acceleration; two, one-" before Gideon even finished her countdown, the hyper-cube darted off at nearly eight-hundred-thousand times faster than the speed of light, surprisingly without a single case of whiplash within the ship. It must have been some sort of advanced technology that kept the interior of the ship in-place even while traveling at such speeds.
…
Exo-Planet 97925, April 3rd, 2024.
It only took thirty-nine hours to make it through the depths of space and into the orbit of a deserted, wasteland of a planet; it was eighty-percent layered in desert sand with only a few long-abandoned city-like structures still standing. After entering this foreign Galaxy, Ben inputted the directions Synaptak sent him, leading to this world. During this nearly two-day journey, Ben and Albedo used an empty training room similar to the one installed in Tennyson Tower; their reasoning was keeping their fighting skills sharpened for the oncoming battle. Gwendolyn and Sunny mostly took their spare time to rest, eat, and catch up on their individual lives they never knew.
"I believe we've reached our destination; would you like to commence landing protocol?" Gideon asked politely.
Ben furrowed his brow, now with Albedo in the 'living area' of the cube itself, "Yea, definitely, but I don't remember the other me needing to be asked to land…" he questioned.
"Mr. Ten Million devised a neurological implant to which he could send and approve commands via thought process, if you would like I can sanitize the medical bay and have an implant prepared-" Gideon was cut off as Ben interrupted her.
Ben chuckled a bit, running his fingers through his slicked back hair, "Thank you, Gideon, but I think I'll stick with verbal commands," he almost cringed at having a chip implanted into his brain surgically, besides it wasn't his hyper-cube, once this was over he would need to find a safe place to store it. Specially with all of the powerful artifacts collected within. "Let's just stick with making landfall."
Albedo approached the holographic image that was spinning in the center of the room, analyzing the terrain, he glanced up at the ceiling, "Ensure you land us in one of those abandoned cities, the tall buildings will act as sufficient cover."
"Of course, Mr. Albedo," Gideon announced.
The hyper-cube descended on the planet, completely ignoring atmospheric reentry heat, they would make landfall in only seconds. As their decent slowed, they could see the devastation this world had been through, craters in every street, buildings only left half standing, foliage and brush weeding over it all through the massage of time. Once the ship docked, it cloaked itself completely, appearing as though the door opened into another world.
Ben was the first to step foot in what he thought was dirt but, instead he recognized it as layers upon layers of ash; he was followed by Gwendolyn who kept her eyes on the buildings surrounding them, if anyone was alive around here, it would have been the perfect vantage point for a sniper. Albedo and Sunny both stepped down the platform into the ash, the former looking around at the surrounding buildings towering over them.
"Yes, I believe this should do nicely," he quickly turned to their leader who was also observing the scenery to announce a very important question, "And what of the relic, if we leave it on the ship and it's discovered-"
"We have no way home…" Sunny surmised but, was mistaken.
Ben shook his head, "If Aggregor gets his hands on what's inside the ship, he could rule the Multiverse without ever going to the Forge," having spent an extensive amount of time studying everything that was stored within the interdimensional-cube. "Gideon, we're going to take the piece, can you take the ship just out of range in camouflage mode?" Ben asked with uncertainty in his voice, looking around and awaiting an answer.
"Of course, Mr. Ten Thousand, I've already synched my systems with your Omnimatrix, you should be able to summon me once you're ready to depart," Gideon explained pretty clearly, the future must be incredibly advanced to design such a complex and interconnected intelligence.
The cube melded open a door for them with a platform leading down into the dirt, looking up and around at the untouched and abandoned civilization, "I wonder what happened here?" Sunny asked, feeling the death still lingering in the air.
Ben placed his hands to his hips and exhaled, "Apparently, there was a civil-war about a thousand years ago… details are foggy but, it had something to do with foreign tensions, whatever that means," he too looked out at the scenery including abandoned vehicles scattered across the uniquely designed roads. "I'd say this is as good a place as any to hide the piece to the map, try finding a good-"
Albedo stepped in between them, having just exited the cube, "We've received broadcast from several planets matching Aggregor's description, he's already destroyed a whole world just for one of these pieces… it needs to be hidden thoroughly," the concern in his voice was certainly sincere.
Gwendolyn cut him off, "But, it doesn't matter where we hide it, he has at least one piece of the map already or more than likely a few more since we've been traveling… the pieces will lead him to it no matter where we hide it," her reasoning was concrete, that was exactly the case, "What we need to do is give it to Sunny."
The Anodite, now currently in her human-disguised form, gasped and widened her eyes, "W-What? Why me? Give it to Albedo!"
"I would gladly-"
Gwen took a few steps forwards pulling the piece of the map they acquired from thin air, a tiny sparkle of teal energy summoning it into her hands, "Unfortunately, your abilities don't work on Aggregor, he's completely immune but, if things go south you are one of the only ones that can out speed him in space," once again her explanation was solid and made complete sense but, this didn't stop Sunny from becoming irritated to say the least.
"I'm not going to be playing fuckin' keep away when I could be fighting!" Her eyes flashed violet for only a moment as tears welled, "The three of you can't stop him alone."
Ben approached having overheard their conversation, he raised his brow, "Who said anything about the three of us?" he received two very confused looks from them both before he explained himself, "This morning before we arrived I got word that the Galactic Enforcers' mission ended quicker than they thought so, their next stop is this planet."
Gwendolyn's smile widened across her face, lunging into his arms, and wrapping hers around his torso, "Thank you."
"For what?"
Sunny watched the love-birds as they conversed, finding it entertaining to say the least, "For not trying to do this all on your own, I know you don't like asking for help… how hard it was to accept the Plumber Helpers into our ranks, my point is, thank you," she finished her sentence, pressing her lips against the side of his cheek close to his lips before pulling back, giving him the most seductive eyes as she backed away.
Sunny chuckled, being who she was, she couldn't resist, "You two are totally gonna fuck each other's brains out later, aren't you?" Gwendolyn gave a light gasp, covering her mouth but, not being able to conceal the heat rushing into her cheeks.
Ben's face went read as well punching his cousin's shoulder only prompting a familiar giggle as he forcefully turned her around and pushed her back towards the edge of the street where they were headed.
Ben stopped in the center of a four-lane street, two incoming on the left and two outgoing on the right, on either side of the street were several blocks of large buildings resembling apartments. As he scanned his surroundings for advantages, he noticed several vantage points he could make useful, "Albedo I want you watching us from the window of one of those rooms to the left, Sunny I need you to guard the piece and stay behind us, Gwen…" he turned back to look her in the eyes, their matching emerald eyes sparkled whenever they made eye-contact, "You're with me."
…
Gwendolyn allowed the naturally whisp of this planets breeze to pass through her auburn-orange hair, approaching the hero of heroes still standing on the street from behind, in wait for the oncoming threat. Though she was an empath, so she could feel the anxiety and uncertainty emanating from him in thick waves, she reached out from behind and gently took hold of his right hand, "You think you can take him, hero?" she joked with a light chuckle, trying her best to cheer him up.
"Don't joke, please, if we lose this round, and we can't stop Aggregor…" Ben was only thinking of the ramifications of the Osmosion getting his hands on their piece of the map, "It'll force me to do things I'd rather not…" he trailed off in attempt to hide which specific memory he was drudging up.
Though being his wife, she naturally brought it up anyways, not out of any malicious intent but, almost on accident fighting the urge to gasp and cover her mouth after saying it, "Like what you did to Vilgax? And the guy who sold me the pills I overdosed on?" he instantly regretted sharing that particular instance, being not one of his finest moments.
"Worse," Ben responded bluntly, "It'll force me to do something much, much worse…" he finished his sentence by pulling his hand from hers and walking back towards one of the abandoned buildings they were taking refuge in while waiting for the fiend to come looking for his ultimate prize. Gwendolyn gave a long exasperated sigh, not very much enjoying when he was intentionally vague for the sake of drama… although, if he was thinking what she thought he was thinking… the sentence itself almost garbled her brain but, once she straightened out her thoughts. She hoped to whatever god existed out there that they could defeat Aggregor here and now.
Ben stepped through a doorless opening to a long-abandoned office building, or something of the sort with unique looking chairs scattered across the room though, all electronics or machines of any kind had been stripped away. They surmised there was massive looting going on before who-or-whatever forced this planet into an apocalyptic wasteland.
Albedo was transformed into his Evolved Galvan form, using crimson-hard-light projections to form a calculated strategy they could use, "Any luck?" Ben asked but, didn't catch Sunny swinging her hand over her neck as to warn him to be silent, just a little too late.
"Luck? Luck?!" Ultimate Albedo spun one-eighty in his hovering apparatus, scowling at Ben with all three of his eyes the latter of whom backed away with his hands up in surrender, "Aggregor has not only acquired the full essence and power of five particularly unassailable species but, he's furthered his strength by absorbing every energy assault we've tried thus far. Calculating a strategy to defeat such a force of nature is inconceivable, specially in the limited timeframe you've given me!" he shouted in Ben's face but, the insecurity and slight embarrassment he felt gave him the perfect idea.
"I think I've got a plan, if we can't out fight Aggregor…" Ben trailed off hoping the super-genius floating beside him would pick up on his point.
Albedo's third eye widened, turning once again to face Ben who had a mischievous smile on his face, "Perhaps we can out think the fiend," as he turned around and began adjusting the calculations for their strategy, even the emotionless Evolved Galvan gave him props, "I'm impressed a lower level intellect thought of such a simple victory method before I did, you are fascinating Ben Tennyson."
Ben shrugged his shoulders, "It's one of my many appealing qualities," he smugly replied.
…
One Hour Later
The sky cracked open with an unbelievably fast object breaking through the atmosphere of the exoplanet, darting across through brown clouds, decreasing his speed to scan the area though, the three pieces of the map in his hand signaled to him where to go as he flew through the reddish sky. His landing imprinted his massive feet into the ground, shaking the surrounding area with his impact, he knew he was in the right place considering Ben and Gwen were staring him down from a few hundred feet away. Side by side, husband and wife.
"I see you've chosen a deserted battlefield to reduce casualties, clever but, that didn't seem to work out for your older counterpart, did it?" Aggregor taunted him as he slowly advanced, step by step, yet still giving no signs of malicious intent, "I'll make you a deal, surrender the piece to the map and I will leave in peace," as conniving and dangerous as this man was, from what the couple could tell, he was being genuinely sincere.
"A piece of a map?" Ben feigned, glancing back at Gwendolyn as she too shrugged.
"Never heard of it…" was her only response.
Aggregor took one more step forward with his hand out, "What about this? Give me the piece and I'll spare your friends in my new reality," while his sanity was certainly more controlled than Kevin's ever was while mutated, he still stank of betrayal, "I could give you a happy life, no more wars, no more villains, no more crime..." he paused as he saw no headway being made, he pulled his final trump card before he would use lethal force, "I could bring your son back."
Gwendolyn only gasped, leaving Ben to shut his eyes as a single tear rolled across his cheek, trailing down his chin, "A world of peace, peace enforced by you, ruled by you…" he shook his head and quickly wiped the tear from his face. Still though, it wasn't an offer they could never accept, especially knowing the ramifications of such a decision, "Leave in peace only to rewrite reality and turn the Universe into slaves, sorry I think not," Ben responded, double tapping the dial on his Omnitrix summoning the nanomechanical taden-titanium weave suit, channeling his Omni-Energy through the suit's trim, glowing neon emerald.
Gwendolyn followed quickly, tapping the Alpha Rune around her neck, she summoned her strongest armor amongst the many different cloaks and outfits she'd worn over the years. Just like Ben's it was comfortably skin-tight, navy blue with teal lining which trimmed the suit, and it too illuminated with neon-turquoise energy, surging with mystic prowess. Summoning her Staff of Ages, she materialized it into her hands, spun it above her head before slamming the blunt end into, what she could only assume, was the asphalt of the street.
Aggregor waited patiently for the precious seconds they needed to armor up, so to speak, preparing for a battle, "I see you allowed your friends to leave with their lives, a smart choice on their behalf, smarter than I gave them credit for," Aggregor looked around at the buildings and used his senses as a hunter to sniff out the area, finding no trace of the other two heroes.
"You won't get the piece," Ben announced, getting straight to the point as his eyes glowing a furious emerald, the energy pouring from them trailed into the air like smoke.
Aggregor sped-up his advance, walking much faster towards them now, "We shall see about that," the amalgam dashed across the battlefield with speed he clearly absorbed from a different species but, before he was even halfway to his target, he was partially stunned by an explosion of emerald light. Suddenly from the glow, a thick pear-white armored palm stopped Aggregor's momentum by the face, clutching it tightly, overpowering, and pinning the tyrant into the ground face up with so much strength it cracked apart the road beneath them. Gwendolyn glanced up at the Evolved Atomix, while his normal form was skinnier and wielded only two canisters of highly dense nuclear energy; his Ultimate form was bulkier with a broader chest giving room for a glowing emerald reactor in the center of his chest, matching the intensity of the canisters across his forearms and even both shins. The Omnitrix symbol was embedded on a black-belt that wrapped around his waist, "This again?" Aggregor grumbled from the dirt, recalling his fight with Ten Million.
Ultimate Atomix tried to force his head down further by the face but, the Osmosion fired beams of crimson energy from his eyes, burning even Atomix's armored palm, "Fine then," he said confidently, releasing his grip suddenly as Aggregor nearly fell back but, wasn't able to due to the nuclear haymaker engulfed in emerald nuclear flames collided with his jaw before he even hit the ground.
Gwendolyn levitated herself up seven or eight feet to be at eye level with the radiated hero, "Execute phase two," she whispered into her com-link found in the hyper-cube now embedded in the ears of both her and Sunny. Considering they would be changing forms; they wouldn't work for either shapeshifters.
Sunny had a finger to her ear, looking up once she heard her cousins orders, and nodding at Albedo who jumped out of a ten-story window; landing in front of the rubble Aggregor landed in, transforming in a flash of emerald light, he appeared as a disguised Negative Feedback. Just as they did against him the first time, this enemy clearly had no way of distinguishing between which shapeshifter he was fighting.
Aggregor pulled himself from the rubble scowling but, couldn't react in time to avoid the Conductoid's antennae sockets from shooting out and plugging into either of his shoulders. Negative Feedback began sucking the stolen energy right out of Aggregor by force, giving him a taste of his own medicine, "How does it feel?!" Albedo shouted, the enemy still believing to be facing Ben Ten Thousand, his energy was being drained, no doubt, but at that rate it would take uninterrupted minutes. Time they didn't have.
"Agitated at best!" Aggregor grabbed hold of both antenna and yanked them forwards, pulling Negative Feedback directly into a right-straight jab that created a shockwave with its force which reverberated across the dead city.
He was sent flying into the remains of a demolished building, slabs of what could be concrete or limestone, shattering them with his body once again landing out of sight. Suddenly, an emerald explosion revealed Ben this time, in his To'kustar form, as it slowly evolved with a wave of genetic green energy cascading across his entire massive body. Along with blue cosmic dwarf-star armor to accentuate the crimson armor, he grew another several thousand feet, now capable of using the Burj Khalifa as a back scratcher, "How is he recovering so quickly?" Aggregor growled, flying upwards to face the hero, his eyes glimmering with crimson rage.
"Say goodnight!" another new ability Aggregor didn't know about; Ultimate WayBig could focus and fired the cosmic-beams he usually emits from his arms, directly from his eyes blindsiding the enemy as he was hit with enough force to eradicate Earth several times over. The odd part was that this unique 'cosmic' energy originated a Cosmic Storm, thousands of Galaxies away… unlike a being of raw energy like a Celestialsapien, this cosmic energy couldn't be absorbed. At least not by an Osmosion.
Aggregor created a sphere of nuclear energy around himself to defend against the blast, grunting out of frustration, he started forth at the speed of light and delivered a left-straight punch to the Evolved To'kustar's forehead, sending out a shockwave which collapsed half a dozen weary buildings, and launching him off his feet and out of the city considering its size. An expansive explosion of light signified his defeat, however; Aggregor was somehow still being bombarded with attacks from below.
Negative Ultimate Heatblast, still disguised as Ben, fired beams of raw white-hot flames upwards from his charcoal palms, glowing with blue flames across his body, erupting from his volcanic shoulders, and emitting from his head like a skull completely on fire. Each beam was far hotter than the core of the sun itself but, it still was only a minor annoyance to Aggregor who dropped from the sky, pounding on the ground with his feet creating a small crater. The Evolved Pyronite unleashed a wave of blue flames so intense it melted the asphalt-like substance making up the road, forcing the Osmosion to push through the attack since he couldn't outright absorb fire.
Negative Ultimate Heatblast unleashed his most powerful wave of heat, a beam of white-hot pure heated plasma surrounded by blue-flames hotter than the surface of the Sun; Aggregor pushed through the flames, not that he didn't still feel the heat, he simply powered through it until he could slap the attacking hands away. Quickly gripping the Ultimate Pyronite by the neck and lifting him off his feet, "Your abilities will do nic-"
"Execute phase three."
Gwendolyn dropped from the sky out of sight, slamming her Staff of Ages into Aggregor's forearm forcing him to drop Albedo before he syphoned any of his powers, "Go," she stated firmly before turning and whacking the fusion with her staff, empowered by turquoise energy lining its features. The smack managed to send him back a step, noticing the success, she swung again hitting the side of his face with enough force for him to back away two steps.
Ultimate Heatblast transformed in a flash of bright emerald light, lucky he hadn't damaged the camouflage, revealing a Kinceleran; Negative XLR8 dashed from the scene, darting between buildings, Aggregor incapable of keeping up as he went up and down, across and through every street around them in this deserted city. Albedo stopped and transformed back into his human form out of sight, "Tag in?" he held his hand out while trying to catch his breath.
Ben gladly smile, slapping his outstretched hand, "With pleasure."
Aggregor scanned his surroundings but, somehow missed an Evolved Tetramand standing right behind him, his blue skin and bulkier muscles came with small horns pultruding from his forehead, "Hey," Ben said first before right-hooking the amalgam directly in the nose followed by an uppercut to the chin, sending Aggregor reeling several steps back, almost in a daze. Transforming again, a rotund, slimy, creature with one wide-gapped mouth and no eyes drooled slime across the floor upon entrance.
"Hate that form," Gwen muttered under her breath.
Spitter fired a pressurized blast of adhesive slime/vomit pointblank into Aggregor's chest with enough force to push him back once again, another explosion of light revealed the golden-godlike Celestial floating before him, spreading his glistening holy wings out; noticing the cracks still in his Talpaedan armor, he knew he could shatter it if he just had the opportunity, "No holding back, I guess," Gwendolyn and Albedo, the latter of whom was hiding for their plan to work. Celestial slapped the dial on his chest sending a million-years of training and war experience through the selected species.
"Enough of these games! All you fools do is delay the inevitable, an unwinnable game!"
Ultimate Celestial's glowing beard had grown several inches, his eyes no longer having pupils just encompassed in glowing golden energy; instead of two heavenly wings, the evolution sprouted two more slightly shorter ones for extra speed located just underneath the original wings, on either side.
Aggregor smiled and stretched his back, cracking a few ligaments he didn't know he had, "Finally, a real challenge," the amalgam dashed forwards with immense speed he was clearly holding back before, right-crossing the Evolved Celestial in the cheek which sent him tumbling back through several buildings, crumbling rubble falling across the battlefield, the last of the structures collapsed atop him.
Dematerialized from beneath the rubble, Aggregor missed the roundhouse kick that came from behind suddenly, recalling now the speed advantage Ben had in this form; struck in the neck with the condensed force a Supernova, Aggregor flew through the abandoned buildings at such unbelievable speed that it left blue flames in the wake of his trail. Leading to a six-foot deep crater where Aggregor got to his rear and shook his head, cracking his neck to adjust from the blow he'd just received.
Ultimate Celestial seemed strained, as though using the form was far too much power dwelling within a still mortal body, he was prepared though when Aggregor fired off blasts of water that could slice through stone with ease. Even though the hero wasn't fazed by the attack, it was what followed that stunned him, a bolt of lightning not striking the enemy but, the water at his feet conducting it and electrocuting him. This was enough of a distraction for the amalgam to dash forth and deliver a haymaker to the face, which unsurprisingly did no damage and the Cosmian never even flinched.
"I think it's time we end this," Said the hero, Aggregor wasn't expecting an attack from behind where Albedo stepped in as Negative Feedback once again, plugging into the amalgam's back, and draining as much of his power.
Gwendolyn floated from above with her eyes glistening with teal energy, swinging her hands in gestures which summoned mystical seals over her opened palms, "Potestas Impediendum!" her spell target Aggregor, obviously, suddenly gripping him in a paralyzed hold.
"This?" Ultimate Celestial held his fist out, flaming with emerald energy, "This is for Ten Million," the hero began bombarding Aggregor with punch after punch, haymaker followed by haymaker, each jab letting out every emotion he'd bottled up since he left Earth weeks ago, "You took me from my family!" he struck again, this time hard enough to shatter the road beneath the villains head, "You nearly killed my wife!" a right-cross this time splattering blood across the rubble and dirt. Celestial grabbed him by the nuclear-harness around his neck, floating upwards with an enraged scowl matching the one he gave Hope the day she crossed the line. "And most importantly for you? You pissed me off," letting go of the harness for only a brief, single second, before bringing both fists down on Aggregor's chest shattering apart his armored torso on his way down a hundred feet. Landing flat on his back.
To everyone's shock, Aggregor slowly pulled himself out of the crater, relatively unharmed aside from the small trickles of blood from his nose and lower lip, "I'm quite impressed, Ben Ten Thousand, the greatest prey a hunter could ever dream of," he paced for a moment once he floated out of the crater, Ultimate Celestial still watching closely, "But, I never come unprepared," dashing away at impossible speeds he must have absorbed from several speedsters throughout his travels.
Celestial gasped when he returned no more than two seconds late, holding Sunny by the throat though, the piece wasn't with her which was a smart move on her behalf. "Don't do it, Aggregor," being made of pure energy meant if the Osmosion consumed all of the energy in Sunny's body, she would essentially die, "You don't have to kill anyone else."
Aggregor have a light chuckle before returning to his serious demeanor, "Than give me what I came for, and I won't have to," Aggregor demanded, slowly sucking the tiniest bit of her energy from her, causing her intense pain, her shouts echoing across the silently abandoned planet.
"Stop! Stop, let her go and the piece is yours…" Celestial lowered his head and surrendered as two explosions of emerald energy returned Ben back into his human form, "But you have to let her go first."
Seeing the resolve leave his eyes, Aggregor knew it was safe to release the prisoner as Albedo approached with a scowl, appearing to be holding the piece in the palm of his mechanical prosthetic hand.
"When I get my hands-" Albedo attempted a threat but, it was in vein.
Aggregor scoffed and yanked the piece from his grasp, "By the time you have the courage to do anything, this Universe will never be the same," the tyrant was so busy boasting he didn't take the time to truly analyze what the former Galvan was holding.
Albedo opened his mechanical-hand revealing the final quarter of the piece to the Map of Infinity, and microseconds before he grasped it in his malevolent claws, he was interrupted by a massively-faster than sound boom cracking open the atmosphere as a figure landed, cracking the ground at his feet. "Should one hero help the Galactic Enforcers, they assuredly return the favor!" the man was six-foot-ten with greyish navy-blue skin, his build was that of a body-builders toned and broad chested, suited in a golden-armored costume which bullets would effortlessly bounce off of, let alone his actual skin, denser than steel.
Ultimos was alone on the battlefield but, had been briefed on the ongoings of the current threat, with his superior speed, he snatched the piece from Aggregor's hand as he flew passed him. "I believe this does not belong to you, thief, by the Galactic Code of Conduct you will be-" he was interrupted by an uppercut that send Ultimos back into the side of a building. He only barely avoided a fist plunging through the stone wall centimeters from his head, had he not moved the fight would have been over.
While Aggregor took several seconds to pull his arm free of the wall he punched through, Ultimos blasted him in the cracked chest-plate with his heat vision, forcing a groan of agony through clenched teeth. "You will regret that!" the Osmosion's eyes flashed blood red, energy cascading outward around his face, drifting upwards into the air. Ultimos followed his lead as both of them engaged in a contest of optic-prowess, firing their heat-beams at one another stalemating for several long seconds.
"You have spirit…!" During their beam struggle, Aggregor fired a nuclear-beam directly into Ultimos' chest, searing through his costume, and breaking skin leaving a third-degree burn in the center of his chest. Taking the opportunity to dash through the air, tackling the hero into the ground, reeling his fist back, the hero had more fight left in him than Aggregor thought. Colliding with his fist by catching it, struggling to keep it at bay, though Aggregor clearly had the upper hand. Ultimos fired bright red heat-vision from his eyes once again into the Osmosion's unsuspecting face, disorienting him enough for the hero to deliver a knee strike to his already cracked armored chest-plate. The more they chipped away at his nearly impervious armor, the better chance they had at defeating Aggregor here and now.
Sunny had retreated behind one of the buildings, clutching the real piece of the map, while simultaneously maintaining her solid-illusionary spell that made the quarter-piece appear on the battlefield. Every shockwave prompted her to stand and fight but, the look in Albedo's eyes when he considered what would happen if he lost her, settled her down. Refocusing on her mission to safeguard to piece.
Ben recovered as Gwendolyn was crouched next to him watching the battle ensue, "I should be out there…" he muttered, his wife looking up into his eyes.
"If I didn't master healing, you'd need a body-cast by now…take a few seconds and rethink your approach," Gwendolyn's hands glided over the wounded areas across Ben's scarred body, relieving pain and sealing lacerations but, as for the injuries themselves, mystic healing could only do so much. She placed a hand on the side of his face aiming his eyes at her identical iris', "I believe in you, even if not here today, you'll win this."
"Do you see now!?" Aggregor shouted, cutting the tender moment short as the healing she'd done would have to do for now; Ultimos held up by the throat, bleeding severely from the chest, with identical trickles of blood running down his eyes and mouth, "No hero can possibly stop me from achieving my ultimate goal, acquiring the ultimate quarry!" Before any of them could act, Aggregor finished absorbing all of his powers, the crazed Osmosion squeezed until he broke Planet T.K's most powerful heroes neck effortlessly.
Ben shouted with a bloodcurdling scream, "NOO!"
Ultimos' eyes bled as well as from the ears and nose, he was dropped like trash at Aggregor's feet as the tyrant moved on, "He was slightly formidable, I'll give him credit where it's due," he stepped over the decease hero without a second thought.
Noticing Ben completely distraught and focused on his fallen ally, Albedo took charge stomping forwards as he slapped the hologram he summoned, transforming in a flash of crimson light, becoming a twelve-foot-tall Frankenstein-esque alien, conducting emerald electricity through his metallic fists generated from the two large antenna pultruding from his back.
Negative Frankenstrike sprinted forth and tackled Aggregor from the left taking him by surprise, "Not so fast, we aren't finished with you yet!" Albedo unleashed a barrage of jabs and straight punches into Aggregor's face, cracking the ground beneath his skull, "Why will you not stay down!" his crimson electromagnetic strikes seemed to have no effect on him, spite unleashing his strongest attacks.
"I've had about enough of this," Aggregor grabbed hold of Negative Frankenstrike's forearms, over powering him and forcing him back. He finished his counter by conducting every watt or volt of electricity he was dealt ten-fold into the anti-hero's body, frying him into unconsciousness. The amalgam stood slowly, dusting himself off, "Just a bunch of gnats…" he pulled out the pieces of the map he already collected, locating the source of the final piece being hidden not far from his current position.
Naturally, he advanced towards the building the pieces were clearly leading him to, nonchalantly walking as though he had nothing left to worry about, only he forgot just one person. From behind Aggregor was put into a full-nelson, Ultimate Diamondhead with his much thicker purple crystalline skin, and jagged shards pultruding from either of his shoulder. Over a hundred times stronger than any average Petrosapien, Ultimate Diamondhead kept the fiend close as he turned him around away from the building Sunny was hiding in.
"You expect me to be intimidated by this feeble transformation?"
Ultimate Diamondhead narrowed his glowing emerald-eyes, quickly reeling back and striking the ground at his feet, "Yes," he answered bluntly.
It was only a second or two before three massive, sharpened towers erupted from below the surface, Aggregor effortlessly avoiding them, "Well, I have to say, I'm not impressed!" he fired a beam of nuclear energy down at the evolved Petrosapien who refracted the beam back upwards at the enemy, with just his forearm. Aggregor only barely dodging his own attack. Ultimate Diamondhead swung his hands downward as the massive towers of crystal began deconstructing and firing thousands of shards at the enemy.
Aggregor attempted to shield himself with his nuclear-shielding but, the shards passed right through, slicing across his glowing neon-blue cheek; "I am done! Done with these distractions!" he sped towards the ground at dangerously faster than light speeds, uppercutting Ultimate Diamondhead in the solar plexus with such force it cracked his crystal exterior and send him back into the side of another abandoned building. A crimson explosion revealed the battle was over for Ben, only flashing that color when the user was too injured or unconscious to continue.
Gwendolyn charged at him, imbuing every once of her mystical prowess she had left into the Skull at the end of her Staff of Ages; she leaped into the air and swung the end of her weapon across his face but, it did nothing to even stop him, "One of Tennyson's lackies… not even worth the power," she attempted to strike again but, was hit with a bolt of lighting to the chest propelling her back fifty-feet, skating on her back through the dirt. She convulsed for a few seconds with small jolts of blue electricity cascading over her body, searing her suit until the burning died down.
Sunny heard his thundering footsteps approaching, quivering behind a stone wall that must have once been a large building; she huffed, taking deep breaths to calm herself, was this the end for her? She was more than startled, shrieking when Aggregor punched through the wall she hid behind, breaking it apart with ease as she backed away and he advanced closer.
Without warning, a speedster dashed in between the Anodite and Osmosion; Albedo was heavily injured, bleeding from his forehead, and clearly out of breath yet, he kept his arms straight out at either side. "If you want her… if you want the map, you'll have to go through me," his resolve was unlike anything Sunny had ever seen before, and the nobility of it all, how could she feel so strongly about someone she practically just met? They'd only kissed once and he was already prepared to risk his life for her, is this what 'butterflies' feel like, she wondered?
"Gladly," Aggregor easily backhanded the already injured former Galvan, sending him flying several hundred feet away before hitting a sign in an alien language, and toppling to the ground in pain. "Now, hand it over and I won't absorb your essence into my new found powers…"
Sunny gave a long sigh, narrowing her eyes at the ground, finding the conviction to stand up for herself, "No," she crouched down, slamming her palms onto the ground where two massive boulders levitated behind the amalgam.
"You don't really believe these will hurt me, do you?" Aggregor was starting to question her intelligence when, instead of answering him, she launched the ten-ton chunks of rock and asphalt at him from behind forcing him to turn around. He focused his optic-heat-beams on obliterating both boulders only to turn back around with a mana-powered fist centimeters from his face.
Sunny managed to punch the amalgam with enough force to crack apart the Moon, sending Aggregor flying across the city, eventually using his claws and heels to stop his momentum, ten miles away. "You can absorb my attacks, and my constructs… but you can't absorb a punch where the mana powers my muscles, I'm not as helpless as you think I am!" she teleported from space as reality warped around her, traversing instantaneously, and appearing behind Aggregor where she attempted to land roundhouse kick to the neck, however; she wasn't anticipating that he would predict her pattern and catch her leg mid-air. Swinging her into an adjacent building that came crumbling down with her impact, advanced into the rubble, and yanked Sunny out by the ankle, hanging her upside down where the final piece of the map clattered on the ground.
Tossing her across the battlefield where she landed in a pile of rubble, Aggregor slowly reached down grasped the piece, the true final piece; he found just holding it within a close proximity of the other pieces, drew it together as though it longed to be whole, "Behold, the Map of Infinity!" he shouted basking in his victory.
Ben crawled up towards Aggregor, injured and defeated, lying back and barely propping himself up, "You can't, you don't know the risk!" he shouted. Gwendolyn watched helplessly as the events unfolded before her giving her a major sense of DeJa'Vu.
Aggregor summoned his spear from then air, twirling it in hand before aiming it down at the hero of heroes, "I will shred your Universe down to its last quark and from the infinite nothing I will build a new one," Gwen knew exactly where this was going, she'd seen it happen before twice, and she couldn't let it happen again.
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."
"NO!" Gwendolyn's eyes flooded with turquoise energy, her aura flaring up with the same color-scheme, she clapped her hands together and separated them slowly resummoned her Staff of Ages, gripping it tightly as she funneled every ounce of remaining power into a final mystical blast. So unexpected that the Osmosion couldn't even absorb it in time to be hit by it, hard enough to propel him several hundred feet away.
Aggregor slowly got to his feet, not even angry, simply staring down at the completed Map of Infinity floating in the palm of his right hand, "Forget you insects, in my new reality, none of you will even exist!" with a sickening grin on his face, he took off into deep space, obviously finding a good place in the void of space to summon a gateway to the domain of the gods.
…
Forty-Five Minutes Later
They each recovered but, not without self-doubt and mounds of regret, they had lost and now that Aggregor had the entire map, it was only a matter of time before he figures out how to use it, and traverse the Forge, "Alright, let's get moving, we still have a mission to finish…" Ben announced, with his wife healing his injures from behind, he was seen with skeptical glares from the entire team around him, including his own wife. "We still have one more play," he looked up at them with an enthusiastic smile.
Albedo shook his head, not believing there was any hope left after this final defeat, "And what pray-tell would that play be, exactly?" the most skeptical of them spoke up first but, wouldn't understand the answer outright.
"We defend the child," Ben said this in a more serious tone, his mission wasn't finished yet, and even if Aggregor succeeds, he made a promise to use him to end the conflict for good.
Gwendolyn folded her arms across her chest, "What are you talking about? What child?" she questioned rightfully.
Albedo filled them in as best he could, "Celestialsapiens are so powerful that, in adulthood, they generate two distinct personalities that delegate to limit the use of such intense power."
Ben finished the sentence, cut and dry, "Baby Celestialsapiens don't have limiting personalities, he absorbs the child, he gets the full unrestricted access to all that power."
Sunny rolled her eyes trying her best to understand, "But, wouldn't that mean you would be stuck debating like the other celestials? I mean even if you used that form…"
Ben chuckled, "Being fused to my Omnitrix has some perks; Trix said she could help delegate the controls for the form over to me if need be."
Albedo looked up at the ceiling, addressing the artificial intelligence, "Gideon, could you please transport us back into the Forge of Creation, preferably closest to a new-born Celestialsapien?"
"I certainly can transport you all however, my systems can only get so close to such incredible energy before the hyperdrive goes critical," Gideon explained as best she could.
"As close as you can, would be just fine, thank you, Gideon."
Gideon responded with a giddy tone, "As always, it's a pleasure serving heroes of any dimension, I'll do my best."
The hyper-cube illuminated with a bright white light before warping inward and teleporting across dimensions, leaving the wasteland of a planet in silence once more.
…