Sorry for sort of a late start. I woke up around 2 AM feeling sick- curse you, AMC fries. Or, curse you employee who forgot to change the oil. Yuck.
Before I start the chapter, I had a few ideas for 'alternate' voice actors for characters, just a fun what if.
Ben: Josh Keaton / Damien Haas, honestly either of them work. Also, yes. If you know Damien, I respect you.
Ruby: Stephanie Sheh / Collen O'Shaughnessy
Kevin: Ryan Colt Levy
Weiss: Cherami Leigh
Rook: Aleks Le
Blake: Michelle Ruff
Yang: Erica Lindbeck
Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
"Marrow, you're, uh...Pesky Dust." Ben said, looking away.
"...is he cool?" The Ace Op asked.
"...no."
"Do I at least look cool?"
"You're a space fairy."
"I'm a WHAT?!"
"...what can that one do, anyway?" Weller asked, "Haven't seen you use it before."
"It's highly situational- and wouldn't be effective against them." Ben pointed at the Techadon Inspector. He was now being accompanied by a small army of Techadons, silver in color.
"Those guys again..." Elm said.
"...There's gotta be a way I can change? I'm not stuck like this, right?" Marrow asked, hopefully.
"I mean, unless you guys got your own Omnitrix courtesy of an energy beam," Ben said.
"Well, if not," Elm said, slamming her fists together, "That just leaves more for me. And I am gonna ENJOY this."
"You said it." Ruby said, flicking her fiery cape. "I'm sure this is gonna be GREAT fun."
Weiss fluttered around. "These wings are weird...but, I can figure out the whole 'breathing ice' thing with ease."
"All I gotta do is throw their shots back at them. This is gonna be fun," Kylie said, her hands starting to glow.
The Inspector was rather surprised by the fact that he was facing, essentially MORE Omnitrix users, but he brushed that aside for now.
"Techadon units: deploy neutralization protocols," he said. Some of the Techadons rushed in to deal punches, while others morphed their hands into rotating, tri-barreled laser guns. The first one that reached Elm got an electric-powered fist to the gut, making it double over before the Ace-Op slammed her elbow into its back, shocking and downing the bot.
Two more rushed in at Weiss, the first of them rearing a fist back to throw a punch. Instead, Weiss just turned intangible, letting the fist pass through her and freeze.
"...so that's what that feels like," Weiss said, "Weird..."
Kylie ran in front of the Techadons shooting laser beams. "Okay, Chromastone's basically a good counter for these guys! Just gotta-"
Kylie allowed the blasts to hit her, as she quickly absorbed them into her skin. With a glint in her eyes, she quickly blasted the alien warmachines down. Kylie looked at her hands, and wiggled her fingers.
"Weird..."
Ruby found that her Semblance technique worked just fine, even in alien form. In a burst of burning petals, she raced circles around a group of the warbots. The heat was so intense, the metal began to melt right off the machines' bodies before they crumpled to the floor in a burnt mess.
And Marrow...just kinda fluttered by Ben, who was fiddling with the watch. "Well, come on! You're the guy who knows what this thing does! So come on, give a guy a hand!" Marrow whined.
"Tryna turn into an alien myself here!" Ben said, but the faceplate wouldn't budge.
Elm grabbed two bots by the head and slammed them together, crushing them like cans with a smirk on her face. This was really damn satisfying for her. Two more appeared, leveling their weapons at the Ace-Op and prepared to fire, but Weiss simply phased through, turning them from Techadon Warbots to Techadon ice sculptures. She simply pushed both of them over, letting them shatter into pieces when they hit the ground.
"Hey doc! Think you can help?" Ben shouted over the combat. Weller ran over to do his best, he was no Ceres or Azmuth but he could try his damnedest here. He looked over the device, seeing the faceplate unable and the gears in his head started turning. He looked to the others and then back to the watch. A theory was quickly forming in his head.
"Interesting..." he muttered to himself.
"What? What's up?"
"Something I need to have a closer look at." Weller said. "Alright! We need to retreat right now!"
"What?" Ruby said. "We're winning!"
"Yeah, but I need to test a theory!" Weller said, as he ran off. Man ran like the wind.
Ben blinked. "Huh."
"Wha...oh fine," Elm sighed as she raced after the doctor. Ruby and Kylie covered them, firing off blasts of flame and energy as Weiss passed them by. She still hadn't gotten used to the wings yet.
"Slap the watch! Maybe you'll get a better form!" Ben yelled to Weiss.
"OH SO NOW YOU TELL ME!?" Marrow yelled.
"Well...nothing ventured!" Weiss shouted. She slammed down on the watch and, in an uncharacteristic flash of bright blue, the form of Big Chill had been replaced by the much faster and more reptilian XLR8.
"Yeah, XLR8! They're easy to use!" Ben cheered.
"Says you!" Weiss said, wobbling on XLR8's ball feet. "These things are hard to balance on!"
"Well...uh...nothing like on the job training?" Ben shouted back nervously.
"Ben!"
"Ok, ok, uh...think of it like rollerskates!"
"Rollerskates?" Weiss blinked. "Uh...alright..." Weiss began to move like she would with rollerskates, as she began to speed out of the area...albeit at a slower pace than Ben. But she was still moving quite fast.
Marrow, however...
The fairy repeatedly slapped the Omnitrix. "Aughhh! WHY ISN'T IT CHANGING ME!?"
"Ok, first, don't just keep slamming it down. Believe me, tried that when I was younger and nothing ever came of it. Second, I found with lighter aliens, it helps if you put more force into it. You're lighter now, remember!"
"...makes sense," Marrow admitted as he slammed down on the watch symbol harder.
Marrow suddenly melted, and landed as a dark blue puddle on the ground. Marrow's eyes blinked, as a tiny UFO hovered above him.
"I-is this one better!?" Marrow yelled.
"Goop! Yes! That's one I used against the original Techadon!" Ben shouted back.
"...Your alien names SUCK!" Marrow yelled, as a Techadon suddenly began to run at the both of them.
"Oh and what would you call him?!" Ben yelled back. The Techadon changed its right arm into a cannon and fired, energy shots going right at and THROUGH Marrow. Painlessly, though. The holes in his body closed up as shortly after they were made.
"...ok, bad name, good powers!" Marrow said, his voice now warbled like Ben's usually did in this form.
The alien mech did a quick scan of the slimeblob- a Polymorph. Easily exploitable in weakness. The alien quickly blasted the UFO, sending Marrow flying back, splattering all over the ground.
...it then turned it's attention to Ben.
Ben backed away nervously. "U-uh, come on, man! Let's be civil about this! How about you just stay where you are and-"
A blue blur quickly sped by and tripped up the warbot before it got to close. It thudded to the ground as Weiss struggled to stop, almost tripping over from all that momentum.
"Ok, ok I'm getting used to this...sort of," Weiss said, nervously. Honestly, she still felt like she'd fall on her face if she stopped short, "Does Ruby ever have problems stopping?"
"Uh, not really?" Ben said. "You just gotta grip the balls hard-"
Ben and Weiss shared a look.
"...uh. That came out wrong."
"Very," Weiss deadpanned. The Techadon rose back to its feet and scanned the new threat. A Kineceleran. Speed was their advantage, but it had limits. It quickly morphed its other hand into a heat-seeking rocket launcher. Behind the machine's visor, a reticle locked onto Weiss as the warbot took aim.
"LOOK OUT!" Ben yelled, as he held out his hands-
...and then a black glyph formed behind them, in front of the rocket launcher.
The Techadon didn't register the glyph in time and fired the rockets anyway, slamming against the shield glyph and blasting the warbot back. Ben looked at his hands and back at the glyph.
"Did...did you just..." Weiss said, her eyes darting back and forth between the glyph and Ben.
"...D-did I?" Ben asked, looking down at his hands.
"But...that should be impossible."
"Less gawking, more running is in order I think!" Weller called out. Marrow, by then, had reformed, a hand to his head as he groaned.
"Ok...really need to keep the little saucer covered," the wolf Faunus groaned.
"Yeah...sorry, should've warned you about that..." Ben said, as he looked back down at his hand...
What the hell was that?
"Sorry to keep you guys waiting," Ruby said, as she and Kylie joined up with the others, "but are we actually GOING somewhere or we just running in a random directio-" Ruby trailed off when she saw Weiss and Marrow as different aliens.
"We have different forms?! Sweeeeeet!" she cheered.
"We're heading back to the hotel! I need to take a look at the Omnitrix myself..." Weller said.
"Think he'd follow us back?"
"Why would he not?" Elm asked, "Guy's got an army of robots."
"Easy. He might not want to draw too much attention to himself. Imagine if Atlas or the Plumbers knew he was here," Kylie added in.
"Guy's a living calculator. He needs to think his plan through throughly." Ben said. "He miscalculated with you guys..."
"We lay low for a bit, let me take a look at the Omni...trixes? I guess, and we can think up our plan," Weller clarified.
"Yeah. Just revert back to human, and we can figure out the damage." Ben said.
"Ok, one question, how do we do that?" Marrow asked, "Do we just let it time out or?"
"Slap the Omnitrices at like...a medium strength. Should work wonders." Ben said.
"Like...this?" Marrow slapped down the Omnitrix and, in a flash of dark blue, Marrow was back to his usual self. With the exception of his own, unique Omnitrix situated on his wrist. Several other multi-colored flashes followed and the rest returned to their human forms too, Omnitrixes firmly fastened on their wrists too.
"...uh, okay, that's...weird." Ben said, looking down at their wrists. "...hey, why do they all look cooler than MINE?"
"No idea, but I'm taking it!" Ruby smirked, looking over her own. It was primarily red and black to match her own colorscheme, with a black dial. The usually green hourglass symbol was now red, as well. Weiss' seemed like some kind of fancy Rolex-style watch, with a light blue and white color scheme. The watchface was black with two white lines that formed a more angular version of the hourglass symbol. Elm's was more akin to a full-on gauntlet instead of a watch with an interesting, seemingly hazel-colored metal used in the construction with the same light-green hourglass the Omnitrix was known for. Marrow's was more like a modern watch, compact, with a dark blue coloration and smaller dial. Kylie's was also more gauntlet like, with a dark green metal and white hourglass symbol on the watchface.
Ben blinked. "Woah...that blast didn't just turn you into my aliens...it just gave you some Omnitricies!"
"...is that the correct plural form?" Kylie asked.
"I dunno. But still! Holy shit, you guys got Omnitricies!" Ben said.
Ruby tugged on her Omnitrix. "Stuck on there like the Omnitrix too...are we...gonna have these now?"
"That's sure gonna be a story to explain to Clover..." Marrow said, as he put up his hand. "'Hey boss! We had a nice break! By the way, we have the most powerful alien devices on us now! Isn't that KOOKY?'"
"I...think it might have been a...trade," Weiss said.
"Wait...you don't actually think...?" Ben began.
"After what you just pulled off? I'm...somewhat inclined to believe it."
"Wait, trade? What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"Ben...made a glyph. To block a missile." Weiss explained. "It was...so sudden, but..."
"...oh my god, you think he got our Semblances," Marrow realized.
"Speed, Glyphs, and the power to freeze time? Even for a little bit? That's too overpowered for ANYONE," Kylie said.
"...Kylie, he could become a Celestialsapien, a Prypatosian-A and a Chronosapien." Weller said. "You realize THAT'S much more overpowered than your semblances, right?"
"...fair." Kylie said.
"So...you have my semblance?" Marrow asked. "Let's try it out- I'm gonna run at you, and you're gonna try using my semblance."
"Um...ok," Ben said hesitantly. This was gonna be interesting if it turned out to be true.
Marrow took a running head start at Ben- Ben panicked, before he pointed his finger at Marrow and yelled "STAY!" in the most authoritative voice he could. Marrow suddenly found himself stuck, midcharge, one foot off the ground.
"...this feels sooooo weird..." Marrow said.
"...holy shit," Ben muttered, stepping out of the way before dropping the Semblance. Marrow continued on, only for a little bit just because of the momentum he had.
"God, it's weird being on the receiving end of that."
The group all blinked.
"...this is gonna be a fun investigation." Weller said, rubbing his hands.
The group had managed to lose the Weapon Master for now, retreating back to the hotel penthouse. The good news was that the penthouse had more than enough room for them to practice with the Omnitrixes for when the alien decided to try again. At least, when Doctor Weller wasn't looking over the watches, that is. Marrow had found out that maybe this little trade had a sense of humor. He wanted to see what other aliens he had stored away in his Omnitrix, hoping that he didn't have just one useful alien in the form of Goop, so he gave it a random spin and slammed down on the watchface. In a flash of dark blue, Marrow's form had been replaced with a blue furred Wildmutt.
"...the hell is that?" Weiss said.
"Oh, that's Wildmutt. He's Ben's tracking alien for when Blitzwolfer doesn't cut it." Ruby said.
"Oh, ha, ha. Give the wolf faunus a dog alien," Marrow said. Or at least...he thought he said that. To everyone else, it sound like a mix of snarls and whines.
"Oh uh, Marrow? Wildmutt...can't talk. Yeah, it's a little weird," Ben admitted.
"...oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me," Marrow huffed, the words coming out as disappointed whines.
"Wonder who else I've got in here," Elm hummed, turning the dial on her watch and looking through the options. Though, as she did, she noticed that they quickly started to repeat.
"Hey...we only have five aliens on this thing." Elm said, a bit disappointed.
"Only 5?" Weiss said. "That's a weird choice..."
"No, it makes sense. They're not full duplicates of the Omnitrix, not like the Ultimatrix," Weller said as he was examining Kylie's watch, "It's only natural for them to have...limitations."
"Ok...well...let's try this one," Elm said, choosing the third icon in her playlist. In a flash of hazel light, Elm's form had been completely covered in armor that gave off the impression of desert camouflage, with massive pistons jutting out the backs of her elbows.
"Guessing I got the heavy hitter playlist then?" Elm said as she looked over herself, her voice a little deeper.
"G-gah! Armodrillo!" Ben yelled. "Uh, Elm? Might wanna swap to a form that WON'T shake the building!"
"Ok, little curious, but I'll take your word for," Elm slammed the Omnitrix symbol, changing from desrt-camo armor...to a set of armor that made her look like the daughter of an alien warlord, complete with red skin and four arms. She'd turned into a Tetramand.
"...that's somewhat better." Ben sighed, as Elm looked down at her new body.
"Wow...I could wield TWO Timbers like this!" Elm grinned.
"...well that's a terrifying image," Kylie admitted.
"Terrifying but awesome right?"
"Well...ok, yeah."
Weller walked back out, a befuddled look on his face. Ruby followed behind him, as she took note of the Tetramand Elm.
"...good to know she has that." Ruby said.
"So, yeah- all the Omnitricies look like they're 'cut from the same cloth'- same functions, same features, same material...just have no idea how a plasma blast did that." Weller said.
"So, my Omnitrix is on the fritz, while they get their own Omnitricies...and I get their powers?" Ben said.
"Appears so." Weller said. "Haven't the foggiest idea to fix it!"
"Ok...not too bad, though. We can still kick that guy's ass if he comes back. We just need to get used to each other's powers."
"I might've gotten off easy. Heatblast, Astrodactyl, Diamondhead, Wildvine..." Ruby listed off as she scrolled through her playlist, until she saw the last one, "Oooooh I get Upgrade!"
"Wow...you really did, huh?" Ben asked, a little surprised by that.
"Lucky..." Kylie pouted. "I didn't get Echo Echo..."
"There, there..." The beefy Elm soothed her.
"Let me see...I have Big Chill, what did you call the mummy again?" Weiss asked.
"Snare-Oh," Ben answered.
"Big Chill, Snare-Oh, XLR8..." Weiss paused before saying the next name. She smirked a little and slapped down the watchface of her Omnitrix and turned into a familiar small sonic alien.
"You may not have gotten Echo Echo, but I did," the heiress chuckled.
Kylie's face lit up. "No fucking way."
"Hey, I've been the little guy before." Weiss smiled.
Kylie immediately raced over to Weiss and picked her up in a hug, just adoring this.
"This...is officially the best," Kylie smirked. Weiss chuckled a bit, her voice now with that same techno-like tinge to it synonymous with Echo-Echo.
"Seriously, though- we need to focus on a way of getting our powers back to normal." Ben said, looking down at the Omnitrix. "Handy as it that you guys ALSO have Omnitrixes, there's also a HUGE hit on my head for the Omnitrix...and imagine if he got his hands on yours."
"...that's fair." Ruby nodded.
"If I could get my hands on the same tech he used, I might be able to figure that out. Of course, that relies on making sure the device isn't smashed to bits," Weller said. Looking at the heavy-hitting playlist Elm was gifted, he might have had some doubts. Not a lot but still.
"Actually, do you have any theories as to why that energy blast gave us our own Omnitricies?" Kylie asked.
"A few...I assume the plasma cage is to blame. And because you five were also in the blast..." Weller hummed. "Maybe...your aura is to blame."
"...that sounds stupid." Marrow growled.
"Maybe that plasma field managed to scatter the energy from the Omnitrix, and somehow created some duplicates." Weller explained. "That's our best theory for now."
"Think we could lure him away? Get him close enough to Atlas to where the fleet can blast him out of the sky?" Elm asked.
"Two problems with that. One: we don't know what kind of tech his ship is packing. For all we know it's a cubical Death Star. Two: I doubt he'll just let you get on a ship. What Ceres has told me about these 'Weapon Masters' paints them as the kind of people who'd hate letting their 'lab rats' out of their sights," Weller explained.
Marrow reverted back to human. "Well...couldn't we reverse the results somehow? Trick him or something?"
"...plausible, but I doubt the weapon master is gullible." Ben frowned.
"Tricking a Weapon Master would be like trying to trick a Galvan...possible...but very hard to do," Weller said.
"So in other words...only solution to the problem is the most straightforward," Weiss said.
"Unfortunately so. But I'm sure everything'll be fine. You're all capable, not to mention the...playlists you all received seem to play to your strengths well."
Marrow raised a brow at that.
"Most of your play list is good," Ben said.
"Ok...but the fairy." Marrow countered.
"As far as I know...Weapon Masters aren't immune to the dream powder," Kylie offered up.
"...ooooh." Marrow said. "Oh, I see where this is going."
"We'll need to make sure this place doesn't get wrecked. I...don't think the general would like if the resort was wrecked one week before his own break..."
"Ironwood takes breaks?" Ben asked.
"It's rare but he does," Elm confirmed. She stopped herself from saying "Unlike Hare."
"Well...let's get to work, then." Ben said, standing up.
"W-what!? No time to learn our forms!?" Marrow asked, a bit worried.
Elm gave him a look. "You're in one of the most adept teams in Atlas, why are you so panicked?"
"Because...well, I don't know! They're aliens with different functionality and physiology to our own!?" Marrow said.
"The only thing that might be a problem is flying...but you grow into it fast," Ruby said.
"You haven't even used your flying form yet!"
"Yeah but I've seen Ben do it enough times plus I'm already used to the speed."
"That is NOT a good basis! I feel like I need at least like a few hours to-" Marrow was about to carry on, when the building suddenly shook.
"...what was that?" Weller asked.
Ruby immediately activated the Omnitrix. "I'm gonna guess some serious trouble..." She ran over to the side of building, jumped off the side of the building and slapped down on her Omnitrix. Marrow screamed, but the others just shrugged.
"I'm sure she's got this." Ben said.
"OH GOD NOW I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE!" Ruby screamed as she plummeted, splatting against the ground in a red and black puddle. Daze, she reformed back into a form that resembled a humanoid shape, her now one eye narrowed as Upgrade from the hit.
"...oh my god they can actually give you the wrong alien," Ben said.
"...that's WORSE!" Marrow yelled.
"I mean, not if you press it down lightly..." Kylie said, bringing up an icon of Ghostfreak. "Watch!"
Kylie pressed down the watch, and was immediately transformed into the spectre- her form was a bit more heavyset, with tendrils for her curly hair. "See?"
"...I...ya know what? No, I'm not question it right now," Marrow ceded the point and pressed down on his Omnitrix. Vines wrapped around his body, flesh and clothing turning to plant matter instantly. Not the best alien for descending a building, but hey, he could make due with Swampfire. Elm dialed up a form and pressed down as well, her body growing significantly taller, muscles still present but now boosted by tentacles wrapped together to form limbs as she took on the appearance of a female Murrian.
"Oh, good! You guys got Swampfire and Sea Strike." Ben said. "Two of my heaviest hitters."
Marrow sniffed the air. "...please tell me it's not ME that smells like a skunk..." Marrow said, his septum now deviated.
"Ooooh..." Elm said, clenching her fists. "I like this form."
"And I trust MY Omnitrix will give me something good..." Weiss said, activating it. Weiss slapped down the symbol without choosing an alien- bandages ran up her arm, as her insides began to 'hollow' out and her consciousness became embedded into the bandages.
"...who is this!?" Weiss said.
"Snare-Oh. Remember that crazy mummy who works for Zs'skayr?" Ben asked, "The Omnitrix might have scanned her when me and Ruby first met Oscar."
"Have you used them before?!" Weiss said, looking at her paperthin fingers.
"Few times. It's like being Wildvine...but, I can be blown over by a strong gust of wind." Ben said.
"...please tell me you're joking."
"Wish I was. But they've got their perks! The bandages regenerate and it actually takes a lot of strength to cut through them."
"...like the strength of an alien warbot," Weiss deadpanned.
"That's why you LAYER them, Weiss!" Ben said. "Those papers can cut like steel when you do that."
Weiss shook her head. "Whatever..."
"Remind me to actually see if that's true," Weller interjected, "Would be a nice point of reference."
"For what?" Ben asked.
"Side project. Probably tell you later."
With one last roll of her eyes, Weiss leapt off of the building as well, after tying two bandages to the edge of the roof to slow her fall. Not that she really needed it, considering a Thep-Khufan's durability, but still. Kylie quickly phased through the floor, floating her way down to meet up with the others while Elm and Marrow took a more direct approach. The now-Murrian Ace-Op simply picked up Marrow...and jumped.
"NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Marrow yelled, as he and Elm plumetted to the bottom. Ben and Weller shared a look.
"...that's a big jump." Ben said.
"Yes..." Weller nodded.
"...elevator?"
"Elevator."
