I don't own Ben 10.

Chapter 56: Corrupt

Omnitrix City; Downtown; June 9th, 2024; 5:02PM

"Where is he?!" a large armored and mutated rhinoceros shouted in anger, standing in the middle of the street where destruction littered the block, an exploding car from behind prompted him to turn around, "Where is Ben Ten Thousand?!" he slammed his armored hooves into the ground, settling onto all fours where he aimed his weaponized horn out at the civilians running in the street.

He fired an energy bolt at the screaming bystanders expecting to see limbs and blood splattered over the asphalt, instead, when the smoke cleared a bright-yellow energy dome had tanked the blast instead. A relatively tall women with short, bright-auburn hair, wearing a skin-tight blue armored suit and a teal-hooded cloak hanging down by her knees, stepped out from behind her shield which dissipated as she approached. "Sorry, Exo-Skull, your great 'rival' is busy being a Dad; I'm sure we can fill his shoes while you wait…"

Exo-Skull snorted pressurized steam before preparing to fire again, however; before he could discharge another bolt of energy at Gwendolyn, a trail of purple-slime willed itself through the air, landing on Exo-Skull's back, and quickly wrapping one of her tendrils around his horn. Lucy reconstituted into her humanoid sludge-puppy form with an enthusiastic smile, yanking with her enhanced strength on his horn, forcing him to accidentally fire upwards. His energy bolt struck one of the many large signs written in alien-languages which was connected on either side of the street by the tall buildings around them; the debris came crashing down nearly crushing a group of civilians standing behind Gwendolyn.

At the last second, a blur of white and red rushed in, snatching the few bystanders up out of danger; Albedo stopped about a block or two in the opposing direction, looking down at the mother and father holding their young son close to their hip now, "I suggest retreating indoors, we will have this sorted soon-enough," using the negative Omni-Energy he was bonded to, he sped off leaving a trail of upended dust in his wake.

Lucy was attempting to ride Exo-Skull like a wild bronco with her sludge-tendrils still firmly attached to his horn, he bucked forwards multiple times but, to no avail. He stood back onto his hind-legs but, his arms were still to short and stubby to reach around his neck and grab hold of her. Suddenly, a blur of speed rushed passed Gwendolyn, flapping her coat forwards in the process, and transforming with a bright crimson flash of light even while traveling at mach two. Albedo's momentum gave even more strength to Negative Fourarms' double right-straight which impacted the center of Exo-Skull's armored chest.

Lucy managed to release her grip and summer sault over the large horn on his head even as the shockwave from the punch shattered the windows from just the two large buildings on either side of the street, thankfully leaving the rest of the block in-tact. Exo-Skull's armored chest-plate cracked as he was sent flying backwards through the street, landing on the hood of a parked truck, subsequently flattening it.

Lucy landed beside Negative Fourarms who remained transformed for a few minutes, ensuring the enemy wouldn't be getting back up from that last blow. As the Lenopan reformed her human clothes and skin, Gwendolyn walked forwards with her arms folded across her chest, "I already contacted Plumber H.Q, they should be here in a few minutes with a transport…" she trailed off, reaching into her cloak and pulling out her smartphone, she looked perplexed at the screen.

Negative Fourarms transformed back into his human form with a thought, stepping forward to glance over his pseudo sister-in-law's shoulder, "You appear upset," he stated firmly.

Gwendolyn sucked her teeth, looking up from the screen in her hand, "Ben should have picked up Jennifer by now, I figured he'd show up in the middle of the fight just to show off but, maybe I should call him?"

Lucy approached with a smile and her hands innocently behind her back, "Yea, that's a great way to tell him you don't trust him to pick up his own daughter…" she snorted with a giggle as both her cousin and Albedo looked at her with an awkward expression on both their faces, raising their brows at her, "Oop, was that mean? Rook has been goin' on and on about how I don't think before I talk, heh, sorry?" she scratched her head nervously as they refocused on their conversation.

"Fine, I wont call him, I'll just track his Omnitrix and make sure he's not screwing around…" Gwendolyn asserted her choice as though it were a much more trustworthy option, on the other hand, they were married and knowing her, it wasn't a surprising take to anyone who knew her. Gwendolyn pulled out the Plumber badge designed to resemble the Omnitrix dial itself, she pressed down on the center of the device summoning a bright green holographic map of the planet, "That's weird…" there was no sign of any other Omni-Energy signatures on the planet aside from Albedo who was standing right next to her.

"It appears Ben Tennyson isn't on the planet…" Albedo murmured, staring at the map, and stroking his silver goatee.

Gwen frowned and glanced back at Albedo, "That's not possible, Ben wouldn't leave the planet without telling me, and he definitely wouldn't bring Jennifer with him; this thing has to be broken," she decided though, the longer she thought about it, the less sense it made.

"I believe Cooper would have informed us if the Plumber extra-net access was malfunctioning," Albedo pointed out even as they heard highly-advanced transport tanks rolling into the street from the other end, "Perhaps if we widen the search parameters…" the former Galvan tapped the emerald badge twice with his index finger which zoomed out the map, and it continued to do so until two spiraling galaxy-discs were projected in their entirety; the Milky-Way and the closest juxtaposed to it, the Andromeda Galaxy. At the very edge closest to the Milky-Way but, still within the territory of the Andromeda Galaxy, one emerald dot and another dark-purple dot pinged on a Planet that was only vaguely familiar to the mage.

Albedo's eyes widened but, he was too shocked to say anything just yet, staring at the badge and its projected map, "How the hell did they end up in another Galaxy?! Just when I thought Ben was done doing reckless shit like a total doofus, he takes our daughter to a random alien planet with who knows what there!"

Lucy quickly became bored, getting on her phone to text her boyfriend Rook whilst approaching the Plumber's who were securing Exo-Skull, hoping to hitch a ride with them back to Tennyson Tower.

Albedo gulped and finally spoke up, "That is not just some random planet, it appears Ben and Jennifer are both on Galvan Prime for some reason…"

Gwendolyn gave a sigh of relief, "Well, at least they're with Azmuth, that should be safe enough…"

"Indeed, Galvan Prime has the most sophisticated planetary defense grid in several Galaxies, however, I should also point out Azmuth's inability to socialize."

Gwendolyn raised a brow before putting two and two together in her own head, "So, if Ben is with Azmuth… it's not just to catch up?"

"Considering he ended up there with Jennifer, it's a fair assumption to say Azmuth used his emergency teleportation field to summon him, accidentally taking her with him if she were in close enough proximity," Albedo looked up from the map and into the clear-blue sky.

Gwendolyn dispersed the map and lowered the badge, "Emergency teleport?" she repeated, giving off a long exasperated sigh, "Damn it, Ben, what're you doing?"

…

76,162 Light Years Away

Galvan-Prime; Science-Center; June 9th, 2024; 5:02PM

Malware stood up straight to glare into Azmuth's eyes with his neon-yellow misshapen-ring etched over his face, "I can sense the helix, Azmuth, you can't hide it from me… you don't care about me, all you care about is your precious reputation," the corrupted Mechamorph became visibly more agitated the longer he stared at the First-Thinker, Ben kept his eyes focused to his side where the Galvan stood on his shoulder, "You don't want to cure me because it means you would have to admit that the great Azmuth failed!"

Azmuth's expression became hurt, gesturing to him as if for forgiveness, Ben had actually never seen the Galvan express any emotion that wasn't irritation, "That's not true, Malware, I tried to-" he was cut off by another distorted roar.

"You should have tried harder!" Malware lunged at the elder-Galvan and, in turn, at Ben who instinctively leaned back and slammed a right-straight strike into the corrupted Mechamorph's face. The force of the punch sent Malware off his feet and through the air, flying passed the other Mechamorphs under his control, the nine of whom began running towards the Science-Center at a full sprint.

Azmuth hopped off of Ben's shoulder and into his hands, allowing the hero to lower him to the ground as he spoke to them both, "Azmuth you should go inside and fire-up any defenses that building has," he turned to face the group of possessed Mechamorphs in a fighting-ready stance.

As Jennifer watched the frog-like alien hold his cane at his side, speed-walking as fast as he could back toward the buildings entrance, she glanced up at her father who somehow seemed… happy? "D-Dad, what about me?" she questioned loudly while keeping her attention on the enemy in her peripheral, assuming he had some escape plan lined out for her in his head.

He glanced back at her with a coy smile, watching her nervously play with the dark-brown hair strewn over her shoulder, "I thought that was obvious, you're with me," Ben winked down at his daughter, sending fireworks through her heart, she'd never been so excited in her life but, after nearly squealing, she maintained her composure as her father continued, "I'm going to handle Malware, you keep the rest of them from getting to Azmuth or the helix-thingy, got it?"

Jennifer, not being as confident in her base super-human abilities as her father was, nodded and swiped two fingers over the dial on her Omnitrix without looking, the faceplate shifted to the side revealing a core which popped out allowing her to slap it. Ben wasn't at all blinded or startled by her transformation despite being directly beside her, he couldn't understand why Gwen would complain so much as children.

When the bright explosion of dark-purple energy dissipated, a sleek, black-suited velociraptor alien appeared in her place, her Kineceleran form was clearly much younger than her father's but, the color outlining her body was neon amethyst instead of dull blue like Ben recalled. He could also feel that her speedster form was much more powerful than he was at her age and likely faster as well, he couldn't help but be proud. Is this what Grandpa Max felt for him all those times they teamed up together, side by side with your own kin? What a feeling, he couldn't help but smile.

Ben dashed from his ready position at super-speed in a blur of black and white trailing behind him, zig-zagging across the battlefield as he quickly knocked five of the corrupted Mechamorphs off balance in a matter of seconds. Passing them and slamming a recovering Malware back into the ten-foot-tall building he was knocked into, pinning him against the wall with his forearm pressing into his neck, forcing the back of his misshapen head into the ceiling of the tiny building. "I will have that helix, Azmuth!" suddenly, with both of their arms occupied, Malware summoned and shaped his torso into a particle cannon he must have assimilated prior. The barrel littered with glowing yellow circuitry, like the rest of his body, pressed against Ben's torso; the hero struggled to defend himself but, the Mechamorph had secured his wrists tightly with his own grip, "And even Ben Ten Thousand can not stop me!" a bright yellow beam of energy struck the hero in the chest, forcing him off his feet, and through the air. Even the Mechamorph was shocked to see that the beam hadn't even broken skin, only propelling him hundreds of feet away.

Kinetica watched her father fly headfirst into one of the many evacuated Galvan buildings around them, completely destroying it with his body, and being buried in rubble. She knew she couldn't interfere with the other corrupted Mechamorphs getting closer with every passing second, "Think, Jen, think…" finally, she recalled seeing something in a comic book about superheroes with super-speed that she wanted to replicate. The young Kineceleran held her arms out in front of her, rotating them in a circular motion at super-speed, and creating a wind funnel that pressed against the enemy as they approached, slowing them down considerably.

An explosion of emerald light shun through the cracks beneath the rubble the hero was buried beneath, emerging from the rubble as a seven-foot mollusk-like alien with crimson armor, tossing chunks of concrete-like debris off himself by swinging his arms out. He immediately aimed the nodes in the palms of his hands and fired a powerful jet-stream of pressurized water knocking an advancing Malware back once again though, this time the corrupted creature kept his balance and pushed back. Water Hazard increased the pressure of his hydrokinetic attack but, this didn't seem to slow down Malware much, digging its feet into the dirt to avoid being knocked over. Instead, the Mechamorph shot its arm out, forcing its way through the water, and grabbing both of Water Hazard's hands at once ceasing the attack by smothering the nodes in his palms. His hands were consumed by the electronic-goop before pulling him violently through the air back towards Malware who held him up off his feet, "You will not stand in my way," the creature quickly swung Water Hazard overhead like a wet t-shirt, slamming him through three different 'buildings' and leaving him in the rubble once again.

Kinetica watched as her wind-funnel became weaker and her arms began to slow down, it wasn't something she could keep up forever, and the nine enemies approaching her were gaining traction either way. Jen was able to recall at least one thing she heard Azmuth tell her about the Quick-Change Function her father had just unlocked, "F-Frostmoth!" just as one of the corrupted creatures got into her close quarters, it tried to grab her by her sides, and in that same moment she exploded with a flash of amethyst light briefly consuming them both. The Mechamorph was soon completely encased in solid-ice as a younger Necrofrigian floated into the air through its grip and above the battlefield, looking down on the other eight opponents. Other than her size and the color of her eyes, she looked almost identical to Big Chill considering the Necrofrigian species only has one asexual gender. One of them extended its arms out fifty-feet into the air in an attempt to bring her back down to their level, however, it seemed confused when its reach passed right through her intangible body simultaneously freezing its arms as it reeled back in shock. Frostmoth blinked her purple bug-eyes once or twice before exhaling a long gust of arctic-wind at the ground, freezing over the rest of the Mechamorphs in their place along with a layer of snow and frost over the battlefield.

An explosion of emerald light caught Malware's attention from behind, prompting it to turn slightly only to be met with a bombardment of orange flames to its back; steam poured from the flames emanating from Heatblast's body, blistering against the cold atmosphere Frostmoth had just created around them. "Argh!" Malware was struck over and over by large orbs of fire, backing away in pain though, even the hero didn't realize it was moving in the wrong direction. Heatblast concentrated raw heat into his palms, the volcanic-craters making-up his shoulder blades erupting as he thrust his palms forwards firing a beam of pure solar-plasma, which is what made up his base body beneath his charcoal exterior. The energy struck Malware in the chest forcing him through the air, hitting the wall of the Science-Center with enough force to crack apart the wall's exterior. Falling to his hands and knees, smoke as well as the scent of burning rubber filled the air as Heatblast approached with his hands up, prepared to fire another beam should the creature make another move.

Azmuth stood in the entrance watching the battle from behind polycarbonate glass windows, impact proof but, he was more than smart enough to realize it wouldn't hold for long. Other nameless Galvan scientists worked behind him at the central-control desk, trying their best to restart the Science-Center's security system. They were gathered around a console installed into the front-desk, flipping several switches at a time while several other Galvan rewired the panel from underneath the desk itself. "First-Thinker Azmuth!" One of the female Galvan scientists ran up to his side as he didn't move from his position watching the heroes fight for them, "We've reestablished a connection to the defense grid, should we lock down the facility with the humans still outside?" She looked to the wisest among them to make the crucial decision.

Azmuth didn't make a sound for several long seconds, narrowing his eyes at Frostmoth floating above the battlefield as it thawed below her, "Yes, lock everything down, regardless of our guests we cannot allow Malware to find the helix…"

"Right away, First-Thinker," she ran back towards the desk where she relayed the information, three different Galvans working the panel at once activated the security system which began by layering the entire building in a neon-blue protective nano-mesh before shuttering each window with bright green metallic plates.

Malware, who was still on its knees recovering from the attack the Pyronite had laid onto it, could feel the way its possessed army was trapped in ice, they were simply extensions of its will after all. It glared up at the Omnitrix on the hero's chest, "The… power…" it muttered ominously in its distorted voice, not loud enough for the hero to have heard him properly.

Heatblast continued to step forwards, lowering his arms slightly, "What did you say?" he questioned the enemy to repeat itself, his attention still half on his daughter, floating above the battlefield.

"I must have the power!" with blinding speed, Malware stretched out its elastic arms quickly smothering Heatblast's blazing hands once again before this time pulling its entire body onto the Pyronite's chest, reforming around his neck suddenly having the hero in a chokehold. With his arms still restrained, he could hardly fight back as Malware reached around forming sharp claws that ominously scraped the Omnitrix dial on Heatblast's torso. As soon as the sentient-virus made contact with the faceplate it began glowing vibrantly as emerald electricity shot-out around him until a loud boom exploded outward. Within a tenth of a picosecond, the Omnitrix sent a defensive Bio-Energy Feedback wave out around Heatblast to protect itself and its wielder as an omnidirectional shockwave with enough force to propel Malware backwards and into a pile of snow collected by the entrance.

Heatblast looked over his body before glancing down at his torso where the Omnitrix dial sat undisturbed, relieved that whatever Malware had tried to do, it didn't work. Speaking of whom, the virus stood slowly, turning its head to observe its soldiers frozen in ice before glancing up at the Necrofrigian floating above him. Heatblast passively melted the snow littering the ground at his feet just by walking passed, approaching the corrupted Mechamorph who slowly emerged from the snowbank it fell into, "It's over Malware, your toy-soldiers are trapped and you're surrounded, just give up and let Azmuth keep trying to fix you," the hero was still weary of his opponent, keeping his flaming hands at the ready even as Frostmoth landed beside him, retracting her wings into a sort of coat.

Malware stumbled out of the snow, collapsing to his hands-and-knees, and although he seemed defeated, Ben couldn't help but get a bad feeling as soon as it began manically laughing during the silence following Heatblast's demands. "Pathetic… you heard him, Azmuth has given up, he's too proud to admit he made a mistake, let alone to fix one. He would rather call his watch wearing attack dog to destroy any evidence of his failure!" Malware's sharpened claws dug into the ground, its crooked yellow-circuitry glowing with rageful power.

Frostmoth exploded in a flash of amethyst-light, leaving Jennifer in her human form, deciding to weigh in but, unsure if she should just allow it to recover as it rants about its issues, "Shouldn't we be talking about this, you know, after we catch the bad-guy?" she suggested in a whisper to her father.

Heatblast glanced at her for only a second, responding in his deepened voice, "Yea… most of the time when they laugh like that it's because we're… missing… something," he trailed off as his head tilted upwards and his arms slowly dropped to their side, "Shit."

Jennifer watched as fighter-drones descended on Galvan-Prime from their currently corrupted Moon, it had to be assumed that Malware already corrupted the entirety of the Mechamorph race living on Galvan-B. As these drones approached they could clearly see the emerald-circuit design native to their species had been corrupted into a sickening yellow color, just like Malware itself. They dipped closer to the ground, flying only a few dozen feet over the surface, firing off vibrant-bolts of yellow plasma, littering the battlefield with violent explosions.

"Pyrofume," Jennifer announced, triggering an explosion of purple light which engulfed her in energy, transforming her into a female Methanosian with the only distinctive difference from herself and her father's form, before it was erased from the Omnitrix by Eon, was her head decorated with teal-blue seeds instead of crimson-red as well as her more obvious feminine physique.

Regardless of the fact that she had transformed into the most durable and regenerative species in her playlist, Heatblast still felt the need to use his control of heat to form a domed barrier over them as two corrupted drones flew overhead laying down an arial assault atop them. As it passed them, Heatblast dropped his shield and charged flames into his palms, prompting Pyrofume to do the same in response. "Now!" he shouted, both of them firing up with concentrated flames destroying both drones and sending them hurtling towards the ground in heaps of smoke.

The sounds of a fleet of corrupt drones scraping against the atmosphere as they approached the Science-Center dozens of times the speed of sound filled the ears of both heroes in awe at the approaching army. Heatblast took a few steps slowly forward, allowing a wave of emerald genetic energy to cascade over his body, "Jennifer, I'm going to give you cover, you need to retreat back into the building with Azmuth, got it?" as he walked he kept his blazing slits for eyes on the sky, watching the enemy close the distance between them.

Jennifer gulped, taking a step back, she watched the energy evolve her father's Pyronite form, the solar-plasma beneath his charcoal skin began radiating bright-blue, his blunt fingers became sharpened like claws, and a third volcanic crater formed over the center of his spine. "B-But, you said before-"

"I know what I said before!" Ultimate Heatblast shouted, his voice getting deeper as well as more granular through the evolution, "I need you to do what I'm saying now!" the swarm of corrupt battle-drones approached his line of sight prompting Ultimate Heatblast to take off into the murky green-sky with bright-blue flames propelling him towards the enemies.

Malware took his attention from the heroes and refocused on the Science-Center where he could sense the helix behind its shielded walls, "Perfection… it will be mine…" it growled, slowly limping its way towards the building.

Jennifer was sprinting back towards the center and could see Azmuth along with the other Galvans waiting for her behind closed doors. She glanced to her left for only a brief instant, noticing Malware making its way slowly towards its goal, she pressed her heels into the ground stopping herself mid-sprint. Without warning, her eyes lit-up with a vibrant purple glow before discharging a powerful set of twin-beams striking Malware in the chest, forcing a long painful howl from the beast. It was sent tumbling backwards several feet, buying Jennifer enough time to dash at her enemy with unpredictable speed, landing a right-hook to Malware's jaw, knocking him face first into the dirt with enough force to crack the ground with the impact.

Azmuth raised his brows, "Remarkable," he muttered to himself. When he first created and synthesized the Omni-Energy he subsequently used to power his greatest creation, he never considered this type of symbiotic application of that energy. The fact that Ben's offspring retained that connection and learned to use it at will was even more shocking.

Jennifer backed away from the small crater she'd made with Malware's head, looking down on it as it slowly melted into a puddle of a liquid-rubber-like material, "If I cannot have your fathers power, I will have yours!" Malware wrapped itself around her bare left-wrist attempting to force her towards it though she dug her heels into the dirt even as they tore through the mud in resistance.

Even with her enhanced strength she couldn't pull herself free, so she stammered to recall another of her unlocked transformations, "L-Lightray!" an amethyst explosion of light flooded the area for a brief instant, and within that instant, the Aerophibian that emerged propelled itself into the air at such speed that it managed to separate her from the malicious virus. She was counting her blessings when she noticed from her aerial perspective that Malware had taken this brief respite to make it back to the side-wall of the Science-Center.

"I will be denied no longer!" its distorted voice shouted, elongating its claws into serrated blades, before plunging them into the defensive mesh over the building. Its claws sliced slowly through the bright-blue energy like warm-butter, quickly yanking its arms down it slashed apart the grid, disabling it as it flickered and short-circuited across the building. Lightray glanced back at her father still dealing with drones that approached from the atmosphere, he was still likely under the impression his daughter made it to safety. Jennifer felt she couldn't let him down, turning her attention back down to the corrupted Mechamorph who reformed the particle cannon in its torso. She watched as it fired the weapon into the now exposed wall blowing a massive hole in it, Lightray fired off twin neon-purple neuroshock beams from her eyes striking Malware in the back which unintentionally blasted it forwards, face first into the Science-Center.

"Shit," she repeated her father having overheard him use the same vulgarity when making an unexpected mistake. Ultimate Heatblast fired off intense waves of bright-blue flames destroying one drone after the other, however; there were too many of them, even if his strategy was to draw their attention to himself, he was quickly regretting his idea. Using several small jets from the bottom of his feet as propulsion, he was quickly surrounded in a sphere made up of hundreds of drones preparing to blast at him all at once. Heatblast narrowed the blazing slits on his face that were his eyes, "Oh, no you don't," realizing they were all getting in position to eradicate him from literally every side, he clenched his fists as an aura of blue flames enveloped his entire body. With a quick shout of exertion, Ultimate Heatblast unleashed an omnidirectional explosion of supernovae level heat, the multi-colored flames littered the sky, along with close to a thousand dead Galvanic-Mechamorphs hurtling to the ground in trails of smoke.

As Heatblast huffed still keeping himself afloat in the air, he turned his attention back down to ensure his daughter had followed his instructions. Instead, he found his daughter had not only engaged with Malware but, couldn't stop him from breaching the Science-Center where the machine Azmuth warned them about was placed. "Aw man," Ultimate Heatblast exploded in a flash of bright emerald light triggered via thought, transforming once again this time into a ten-foot-tall humanoid man with long angelic wings, a short golden beard, and long shoulder-length blonde hair. Celestial wasted no time in transmuting himself into a beam of light and materializing once again on the ground where Lightray landed beside him. She slapped the dial on her chest returning to her human form, looking up at one of her father's most powerful transformations. Celestial's eyes were almost always engulfed in white-hot light, and his body radiated heat where even his hair seemed to be on fire with golden energy as though his body were just a container for a million exploding suns.

"I didn't know what to do, I couldn't stop him, he just kept getting back up and-" Jennifer stopped talking when Celestial put a handout as though he were trying to listen into the building.

"How long has he been in there?" he asked calmly, glancing down at his daughter.

Jennifer had been keeping count, "Not more than a minute… should we go in there?"

Celestial nodded stoically, tucking his pristine-white wings into his back so he could step through the hole made in the wall, "Transform into something durable, it looks like the rest of the building is in lock down so, we don't know exactly how he plans on getting into the vault," he didn't wait a second longer, stepping through the opening and into the darkened halls with flickering red-lights filling the corridor ominously.

"Right," Jennifer nodded with a serious expression, swiping her fingers over the dial to summon her holographic selection ring, she only realized she could have called out the name of her transformation instead but, using the dial was force of habit at this point. She made a selection and slapped down her core with an amethyst explosion her female Petrosapien form emerged, taking only a second or two to adjust she quickly followed Celestial into the building.

They stalked through the evacuated halls; it seemed like every Galvan present in the center had made their way to the lobby with Azmuth leaving the rest of the facility otherwise abandoned. Ben had memorized the layout of the building as he walked through it earlier, knowing exactly where to turn to find the vault door again, although, once they did, they found the vault completely untouched.

Crystalline spoke up, looking around and up at the ceiling for a moment, "Did we beat him here somehow?" she suggested.

Celestial narrowed his eyes at the vault door that seemed securely fastened, "Well, I've never been that lucky before…" he answered, stepping forward, he gripped the massive vault door with either hand, crunching the titanium-metal with his grip like tin-foil. He tore off the door, separating it from the locking mechanism which sent vibrant sparks through the dark hall as he tossed all ten-tons of it over Crystalline's head landing behind her in a loud, echoing boom, startling her slightly.

As soon as the door was clear, they could hear the maniacal mutterings of the corrupt Galvanic-Mechamorph with its hands on the active helix rods, "Finally, perfection will be mine!" the rods that pultruded from the ground in front of the pyramid-structure channeled uncorrupted life-code energy into Malware but, just as Azmuth predicted, its corruption was too far gone.

Celestial didn't have time to think, instead he decided on action, leaping across the room at the speed of light in an attempt to tackle Malware away from the machine, however; in the microseconds that Celestial was in mid-air, something unforeseen even by the First Thinker began to occur. In the infinitesimal moment, a shockwave erupted from the helix which began shrouding its bright-emerald circuitry blood-red, along with a massive beam of crimson light exploding up through the ceiling vaporizing a hole in it as it stretched into the sky. This same shockwave knocked Celestial back through the air, hitting Crystalline by accident, and sending them both tumbling back first into the vault wall. Both of their Omnitricies reacted to the pulse that struck them, bright-red electricity flickered over their bodies before defaulting their watches into recharge mode, reverting them to normal.

Ben sat up and glanced down at his Omnitrix flashing red and not responding to his mental commands, he then looked back up at Malware whose delusional laughter became roars of agony, echoing through the building and likely across the planet, "That… is a whole lot of not good."

Azmuth approached the window of the Science-Center lobby where he and the other Galvan could see the far-side of the East wing and the massive crimson energy beam that flooded the green skies with blood red thundering clouds, "What have I done?" Azmuth lowered his head in shame as the other Galvan scientists cowered behind him.

Jennifer recovered next to her father just in time to watch as Malware's sickening yellow circuitry was flooded with menacing crimson, his misshapen body took a proper Mechamorph form, his skinny, weak limbs became bulkier and full of life, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" he shouted with much more meaning behind his voice, his body became complete just as his mind did, "I am complete!" he was no longer just an 'it' or just a virus, he was a real being without any corruption in his life-code. He cackled as the massive crimson beam shooting upwards into the sky slowly sucked itself back into the helix which then channeled it back into Malware himself. Releasing the rods, Malware stepped back with a bright aura of blood-red electricity still swirling around his body like loose energy.

Jennifer gulped as Ben took a step forward in front of her, all the while trying to access his Omnitrix through the Master Control but, to no avail, "Is… Is he like all the other Mechamorphs now?" she asked innocently.

Malware laughed at this, a casual controlled laugh, one that was almost sarcastic, "What I am now is so much more than they, I am superior!"

Ben rolled his eyes, "Here we go, big evil speech time, hit me with it and I'll rate it out of ten," the one thing he never needed to be a hero for was knowing how to be a smartass at the worst possible moments.

Malware looked down at his claws, still sparking with neon-red electricity, shaking his head, "Evil? No… visionary! I feel power building inside me, I see a world that I only I can create! It was Azmuth who thought me flawed, he gave me the name Malware… but I am not the flawed one, it is all the rest that are inferior! They bend and stretch, mimic and manipulate… they upgrade only what others have created, I do not upgrade other's creations, they upgrade me!" Malware's arm reformed and took the shape of the particle cannon that was once bonded to his chest, now freely positioning itself where he wanted at will, and aiming it at Ben and Jennifer, "And now, I will upgrade myself with Azmuth's greatest creation…"

He was clearly referring to the Omnitrix which Ben could feel was rebooting itself slowly, trying his best to buy time but, it didn't appear to be working, "Okay, I can't even begin to get into how that's not gonna happen!"

…

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