Hi y'all! we are so stressed and tired im gonna release this part today, another part tomorrow, and then the remaining two next week

enjoy!

ANd pray for me


Animo studied his blueprints once more. The genetics were all proper, the idea was written perfectly, and he could see no flaws to his plan.

Sans one.

"Tennyson would take care of it in seconds," he grumbled as he tore up the blueprints. Ever since he was rotting in jail, Animo had been bursting with creativity. Wolves that were actually spiders! Seahorses that actually were part horse! Dolphin and raccoon hybrids!

That last one was more of an inside joke with himself, but it held promise.

But now, it was the end of August. September was coming soon, and school life was going to resume for Tennyson. And the girl, too. He didn't know much about her. Was she feral or something? She did bite him that one time in June. That was fun, he thought sarcastically. He rubbed his neck, trying to get the kinks out.

He certainly had no idea where Tennyson was at this point, or if he'd reach the boy in time to exact his revenge for...something. His prison psychologist had made him admit his previous crimes were his own fault, so, Tennyson really wasn't to blame for the college or New York...oh, how he hated being mentally burdened and corrected!

"I bet Argost doesn't have to deal with pesky kids," he muttered to himself as he pulled out a business card. He'd been handed this card sometime ago; apparently some big mogul under the moniker "Black Hat" expressed interest in his scientific advancements, and wanted him on board for a separate project. And maybe taking his mind off Tennyson would help. Especially with the benefits Black Hat offered. Animo pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a low voice threatened Animo. Animo spun around to see a set of red eyes walking out of the shadows. The man...no, the thing was shark-like in appearance. His body was white with black markings, and he wore a black robe with red marks in the middle.

"Aloysius Animo," the alien's raspy voice spoke. "...I apologize. Doctor Aloysius Animo, if that doctorate is true."

"It certainly is," Animo said, scowling. "Now, what do you want?"

"Your assistance on a project of mine," Psyphon said. "I believe you've crossed paths with a boy named Ben Tennyson, haven't you?"

Animo gave him a side eyed look. "Yeah? So what?

"I suppose you haven't seen the other Omnitrix wielder then, have you?"

Animo paused. "Another Omnitrix user?" he asked, a twinge of curiosity in his voice.

Psyphon held open his hand a revealed a hologram of Kevin. "This boy here possesses powers similar to Tennyson. He absorbed the Omnitrix sometime in late June and was able to create his own Omnitrix from his body." The hologram zoomed in on Kevin's mutated wrist.

Animo grinned. "Fascinating."

"The boy uses aliens similar to Tennyson's aliens, but they appear to be either melded with other Omnitrix samples or something entirely new," Psyphon continued. "It's fascinating. I thought you would appreciate a detail like that."

"I most certainly do!" Animo exclaimed happily. "But what does this have to do with me?"

"I need your intellect to help extract a certain sample. You've done so in the past, if my research is correct. Then, you may do as you please with the boy," Psyphon said. "I can provide you with whatever you need."

"Anything, eh?" Animo rubbed his hands together, before heading back to his desk and scribbling something down furiously. That creative spark had once more appeared in his mind, and it was more clear than day; he knew exactly how this would all play out.

"I'm going to need a uranium core for this piece of machinery." He smiled as he passed Psyphon his latest blueprint. Psyphon studied the thing carefully and chuckled.

"I'm starting to admire the tenacity of you humans."

The Rustbucket barrelled down a dirt road, following their target. The beast had wreaked havoc on a nearby city, and the fact it thought it could get away? The absolute buffoon.

But bigger problems were at hand. Ruby had a hard time reloading her weapon thanks to how much the car was moving around, and Ben was dreading the incoming end of the summer.

"Two days!" Ben whined, face laying on the table. "Two stinking days left until I have to go back and suffer at school!"

"Dude, focus! That thing's getting away!"

"And then I gotta face my bullies again…"

"Dude…"

"And do MATH…"

"DUDE!"

"And say bye to you!"

Ruby paused. She honestly hadn't realized that, at some point, she and Ben would have to seperate. She slowly put down her bullet casings as overwhelming sadness closed her throat. Maybe it was the fact that she actually had someone think she was cool or whatever, but...the fact they'd have to say goodbye hurt like nothing else before it.

And then they got shoved back into reality, as something slammed into the RV's side. "OH COME ON!" Max yelled as he slammed his fist down on the horn. The thing flew away, scared off by the noise.

"Looks like the big guy found us!" Gwen called out. "Ben! You gonna just whine or are you gonna take care of it?!" Ben sighed and slapped down the Omnitrix, transforming into XLR8.

"I'll make sure to take care of our friend here in a second!" Ben said as his mask fell over his face. He jumped out of the vehicle and took off after the mutant. "Makes sense Animo would try to pull this when I'm on my way home…" Ben said to himself as he focused on the thing's path.

The thing in question was some sort of mutant bug. It had six big, spiky legs and two chelicerates, with eight red eyes in a line. It had darker stripes all over its body, with small teeth and a horn shaped like a concave deltoid.

Ben grinned. "Let's make this quick, bug breath!"

He quickly jumped up and rushed the insect from all sides at a speed invisible to the naked eye, leaving after-images of his form. The insect quickly fell to the ground, scratched up and bruised from the onslaught. Ben grinned as he landed on his weird feet. "Annnnd THAT'S how it's done!"

Suddenly, the corpse of the bug started to squirm and buzz. Ben looked at the thing curiously, before it shed its skin and released a new, smaller form that was sleeker and looked faster than the last. Ben groaned as Ruby joined him at his side.

"Yo."

Ben jumped up. "You gotta stop doing that!" he scolded her, clutching his chest.

"Oh, hush," Ruby said as she jumped on his back. "Ride like the wind, Bullseye!" Ben rolled his eyes, but sped off anyways.

"Soooo," Ruby said, "about what you said."

"Let me guess, now you're dreading when Max drops me off tomorrow."

Ruby nodded. "This summer has, like, slipped through our fingers! How the hell did this happen?"

"Guess we got caught up in the moment," Ben said, "especially right now! Heads up!" The hornet swooped at the two, swinging its massive scythe arms. Ruby quickly blocked it with her weapon before XLR8 spun around in a quick tornado that sent the thing flying into the forest.

"Warn a girl before you do that!" Ruby yelled, dizzy from Ben's move. Ben took off after the monster. "But yeah, we did lose track of time! Like, I barely remember that whole Kraken event from earlier."

"Honestly forgot all about that. And what about that weird weather bot at the music festival?"

"Eh, that was boring. On the plus side, the music was pretty good. But what about those desert pirates that stole the RV?"

"Max straight up blew a gasket on that one. Never seen that guy swear more in his life...but we should probably focus on the wasp," Ben said pointedly, turning his attention to the forest surrounding them. The wasp was still recovering from the motion sickness, and Ben and Ruby decided to use that to their advantage.

Ruby jumped off of XLR8's back and shifted her scythe into war mode, circle-slashing the mutant with downward spike during a midair turn. The thing's head came clean off, but something else was swarming from inside the husk.

"Oh, hell no!" Ruby shouted as she loaded some fire dust into her ammunition load and set the monster ablaze. The mutant screamed in pain as it was slowly reduced to a crisp.

"Well, that was easy," Ben said. "It's not like Animo to make things easy."

"Please don't jinx us," Ruby pleaded. "If you jinx us, you're gonna give me the Omnitrix."

"It doesn't come off," Ben deadpanned.

"I will make it come off." Ruby grinned, brandishing her blade. The two laughed like the stupid dorks they are as Ben reverted back to human. "...I'm gonna miss you, Ben," she said softly, her voice wavering slightly.

"...I'm gonna miss you too," Ben told her sincerely, smiling lightly. The heartfelt moment quickly passed, sadly. Something from the bushes fired at them, and both quickly dodged before it could hit them.

Ben looked over to see something speeding out of the bushes; it was a cubed shaped robot, of all things. Its eyes were red and they had a white skull-shaped face with double blasters on their sides.

"That looks familiar!" Ruby grimaced as she easily shot and destroyed the thing with her eagle eye.

"What is that thing?" Ben asked, glaring at the remains.

"It's the same robot that attacked us in San Francisco. Maybe Animo has something to do with it?"

Suddenly, more and more REDs poured into the area. Ruby frowned as she switched her scythe into its shotgun form. Ben spun the dial to the Omnitrix and scrolled to Upgrade's icon and slammed it down. Black metallic skin started surrounding the surface of Ben's skin. It reached up to his head and glowing circuits started appearing on his body.

Ben merged with the remains of the RED robot and started firing up at the sky. His aim was poor, but his firepower was impressive; disc-like lasers spun in the area and cut through the robots like it was nothing. Ruby shot out some ice dust from her weapon, freezing enemies solid.

For a while, it was just blasting one and then another, like in an old western flick that Max would sometimes watch at Ben's house when he was over for dinner.

And to be honest, it was boring. Like, really REALLY boring. Ben didn't really see the appeal in those movies, and that was ok.

At least Clint Eastwood was kinda cool.

"Welp, I'm bored," Ben sighed before turning his head to Ruby. "Hey, since it's the end of the summer, can I try something I've ALWAYS wanted to do?"

Ruby shrugged. "Eh, sure." And with that, Ben merged with Crescent Rose, giving it a shiny metallic coating with green lines running all around it. Ruby gasped and gave a menacing grin.

"I'm getting some serious anime vibes from this, I don't know why," Ben said as he poked his head out of the weapon. "But wanna see something COOL?" He manipulated the form of the weapon to form a sword-like construct.

Ruby beamed. "Oh, if Uncle Qrow could see me now..." she said, before she jumped up and cleaved through the REDs like they were nothing.

Ruby boosted herself high into the air and slashed through a few more, the blade glowing a menacing green. It wasn't like the blade had slashed them; instead, it melted through them like they were nothing.

Ruby landed on the ground and laughed. "So, what else can you do?"

"Swing me at a target in the air! I think I've got something." Ruby did exactly that; she gave him a good swing and a vertical "wave" of energy shot out the blade, acting as a projectile. It flew through the air and cut through a few more REDs.

"Ooohhh!" Ruby gushed. "Wait, why didn't you do this before?"

"It didn't occur to me," Ben admitted. "You were already pretty strong. Buffing you then would've been stupid."

Ruby paused. "That's true. But let's savor this moment, shall we?" Ben snickered mischievously as he switched the weapon to a double-bladed scythe.

Ruby smirked. "I like the way you think, Ben 10." She ran at top speed, aggressively striking anything that came near her. She was an adorable murder machine, fueled by an adrenaline rush that made her even more crazier and dangerous.

But soon that came to a screeching halt. Something flew down from the sky and landed with a mighty thud. It was a robot / cocoon type thing, but two arms, three legs and a single head sprouted out of it. More REDs poured out of it just as the children recognized it.

"Hey, it's one of those robots from the first day of summer!" Ben cried out as the thing fired lasers from out its hands. Ben and Ruby were still cooling off from their robot rampage, there was nothing they could do-

"Contego!"

A blue shield formed around Ruby. The shield absorbed the laser blast like a sponge before dissolving into blue mist.

Ben and Ruby looked over to see an armed-to-the-teeth Max and Gwen, the young girl confidently holding her grimoire in hand. Max was busy firing at some more rouge REDs while Gwen threw out spells to destroy some more.

"Thank god you two are here," Ruby said, relieved.

"Not just us," Max said with a smirk. Paper flew past him and clogged the robot's arm laser, damaging it significantly. Anna walked out, duster coat billowing behind her.

"Hey, it's that weird lady!" Ben said, poking his head out of the scythe.

"Really? We've met a bunch of times and you can't even remember my name?" Anna scoffed.

Ben shrugged. "I can. I just associate you with weirdness."

"You little shit."

"Eh, he was always a little shit," Gwen said. "Pardon my language." The robot angrily shook his arm, trying to get the paper out of its cannon. "Might wanna give him a helping hand," Gwen added as Ben and Ruby sped off.

Ruby ran at the robot, but the beast lifted its arm to bring its fist down on her. She leapt over it with ease and transformed into a bunch of rose petals to swirl around its body, her Semblance creating a tornado-like force that lifted it into the air.

Aloft, she transformed again and sunk the pointed end of her upgraded double scythe into its arm, driving it toward the ground. The force of the descent allowed the blade to pierce it through, neatly destroying the cannon.

Ruby and Ben landed with a triumphant pose. "Fuck yeah!" Ben shouted as they slowly stood up. "Eat shit, you metallic weirdo!"

"Good work, kids!" Anna smiled as she formed a dome of paper overhead, blocking out the sun. Ben half expected her to bring it down upon the robot like she did in San Fran, but to his shock, the paper didn't budge. "Alright kid! Your turn!"

A black shadow zoomed past Ben and Ruby, immediately going for the robot's legs. It slammed right through the metal and seemingly eating the legs entirely, throwing the robot off balance and sending it to the ground.

The shadow paused for a brief second to take a breath, allowing Ben and Ruby to get another good look at it. It was Kevin's horrific Ghostfreak.

The thing grinned at the two before it sped off and turned into its destructive black form; it ran through the robot numerous times, destroying it piece by piece. The robot was completely helpless, most of its tech lost or destroyed by then.

To add insult to injury, Kevin swapped into Bashmouth halfway through. He leapt over to the head, grew some metal plates and starting...well, bashing the hell out of it. It was quick and violent, and the thing was in shambles by the time he was done. Realizing the "big guy" was down, the REDs all retreated back to wherever they came from.

And then Anna dropped the paper down on what remained of the army. Paper sliced right through their heads like ultra thin graphene blades, and they all fell to their sides, twitching until they died completely.

Ben and Ruby stared at the scene of destruction. "Well, that was overkill," Ben stated, letting go off the Crescent Rose. He quickly reverted back to human.

"How'd I do?" Kevin asked as he too reverted back.

"Not bad, not bad." Anna smiled at him. "You're a natural at this stuff. Though, the head thing? Unneeded. Appreciated, but unneeded. Could've had some important data on that."

"Well, we obviously know it's Vilgax's tech," Kevin said with a frown, kicking some debris aside. Don't see what the big deal is."

"Vilgax?" Ben asked, cocking his head. "Who the heck is Vilgax?"

"...ooooh, boy, do we have a lot to talk about," Anna said, dread in her tone.

The RV was parked at a random campsite, the occupants resting for a while. Everyone was crowded around a picnic table, patiently waiting for information on Vilgax. Ben, Gwen, and Ruby especially, since they knew jack shit about this Vilgax character.

Anna took a sip of her orange juice and sighed. "Where do we even begin?"

"I suppose from the start." Max cleared his throat. "Around my 20s, the Plumbers finally established contact with the planet known as Murray. Murray was a planet we previously knew nothing of, mainly due to the previous kings; however, the last king's son finally decided to open a connection with us. His name was Vilgax.

"Vilgax was...an idealist," Max continued. "He was a dignified 'patriot', militant in his will to accomplish what he thought was best for the Murrians. And people liked him for that. Most of all, he wasn't anything like his father, who was manipulative and violently domineering."

"That's putting it rather lightly, isn't it?" Anna told him pointedly.

"I suppose."

"For a few decades, Vilgax would be an occasional ally. He was a tough and battle-hardened warrior type who was loyal to his allies," Anna explained. "I fought alongside him once or twice. He was a good guy."

"That was, until...The Fulmini Conquest," Max said solemnly.

"Fulmini?" Ruby asked. She felt as if she'd heard that name somewhere.

"They're a race of aliens that go around and steal energy and use it to fuel themselves," Anna said. "Pretty powerful guys, though I'd be surprised if the Omnitrix had a sample of the alien."

"Why's that?" Ben asked curiously.

Max took a deep breath. "The Fulmini fought amongst themselves over the energy that Fulmas held, until the planet began to fall apart. United, the Fulmini began to wage war against the rest of the universe, using wormholes to travel to nearby planets in order to plunder their energy and use it to restore Fulmas to its former strength. They've destroyed planets like the first few Peptoses...Petropia...and just recently, Arburia."

"What does this have to do with Vilgax?" Ben asked.

"The Fulmini tried to invade Vilgax's homeplanet," Max went on. "During a battle, a vast majority of his army was wiped out easily. Vilgax tried to bargain with us, repeatedly asking for backup and reinforcements, but the council decided it was best that Vilgax handled this one himself."

"It was a stupid decision on Proctor's part," Anna grumbled. "Hope that bastard gets what's coming to him."

"Soon after, consumed by ambition, he began seeking a way for his race to 'tame the energy' and end the war. He developed a counter weapon that would drain the Fulmini and empower him, at the cost of some more...heroic codes. Eventually, his race began to fear Vilgax for his obsession. They saw a horrible shadow of his father in him.

"Soon, Vilgax found himself under attack from the rest of his people. Unable to sway them to his side with promises of an end, he exiled himself."

"Alright. So, what happened next?"

"We don't know," Max frowned. "He kept a low profile. He was last said to have been spotted taking a ship to the High Override's throne."

"And that's where I come in," Kevin interjected. "When you said he kept a low profile, you weren't kidding; I only saw the man once, and it wasn't even in person. It was through a screen. He said something like, 'Every single person tries to survive because they desire peace of mind.' He was always kept in the dark too. It was creepy. I only met with second hand man, Psyphon."

"Who's Psyphon?" Gwen asked.

"He was and will always be extremely loyal to Vilgax. Followed his will completely. I think it's because...Vilgax saved his species before? I don't know. He's a bootlicker," Kevin said. "And a creep. Tried to cut off my wrist."

"We also think Psyphon had a hand in building this energy draining weapon," Max said. "...mostly because of his name."

"Aren't you supposed to be, like, intergalactic FBI? Shouldn't you know?" Ben asked incredulously.

"We should, actually," Anna agreed, furrowing her brow. "It's stupid why we don't know."

"Blame hackers and budget cuts," Max sighed. "But for now, all we know is that he might as well be here on Earth and targeting either Ben or Kevin."

"And in leagues with Animo, by the looks of it," Ben said tiredly.

"I swear, if there's a whole league of villains gathering against us, I will personally stab all of them in the liver," Ruby said menacingly.

Suddenly, the bushes behind them moved. Everyone nervously turned to where the sound came from.

"Somewhere tell me where the liver is," Ruby demanded, pulling out her weapon. Ben slowly activated the Omnitrix, Gwen reached for her grimoire, Kevin cracked his knuckles and Max cocked his weapon. Anna just rolled her eyes.

"You guys are overreacting. It's just some wildlife or something," she said, taking a swig of her orange juice.

And she was right. A small rabbit hopped out of a bush. Everyone took a deep breath and laughed at themselves for getting all worked up.

But then, the rabbit split into two. Then four. Then eight. Then sixteen...and soon enough, there was a whole bunch of angry rabbits surrounding them.

Anna set her empty glass down. "I hate being wrong."

"We're surrounded," Gwen said quaveringly, slowly getting on top of the bench.

"So?" Ruby scoffed. "They're small. Watch this!" She cocked her weapon and shot at a rabbit, purple gas exploding out of it. "And that's how it's done!" she crowed as purple smoke overtook the hearing. "Wait, no-!"

No one could see a thing, but they could hear the patter of rabbit feet moving around them; this was one of Animo's sneakiest moves yet, and considering how hammy the guy could be, it was nightmarish to know he actually pulled it off. Ben was reminded of how Animo would turn out in the future- well, possibly turn out.

"Hold on!" Anna yelled as she created a massive fan with her paper, defogging the area with ease.

"Everyone ok?" Max asked, doing a quick head count.

"Yeah, I think so," Ben said, looking at his hands.

"Uh, guys?" Ruby piped up. "Where's Kevin?" Ben looked around; there was no sign of the boy anywhere. Anna looked around, her lips pulling back to reveal her sharp canines.

"Bastards snatched him!" she snarled, her tone bestial. The paper flitting around her darted in and out of the air, slicing apart tree bark and decimating leaves with ease.

"Then it looks like we'll just have to find him!" Ben declared as he slapped down the Omnitrix.

His skin turned grey, his hair growing longer and shaggier. His body started to become more lupine as his mouth turns into a muzzle, and claws erupted from his hands and feet.

"Blitzwolfer's got this covered," Ben said with a grin. "Just don't ask me to identify any colors."

Blitzwolfer got on all fours and started sniffing the ground, picking up on something faint. He barked and leaped out of the clearing, following it.

"Well, what are waiting for?" Ruby said, tugging on Max's arm. "Come on!" And so the group followed Ben into the woods...

Kevin was fucking done with being kidnapped.

A few minutes ago, some rabbits had successfully captured him. What was this, a Monty Python sketch? Is that what his life had become? Thanks Ruby, you just made my life more difficult, Kevin thought bitterly. Nice job breaking it, hero.

Then some weird old guy fiddled with his arm a bit. Judging by his pale green skin, Kevin was scared he carried some contagious disease. He left soon enough, though, since he couldn't figure out how to work the AntiTrix.

(For bad guys that wanted the Omnitrix or AntiTrix, they sure had no clue how to use it. Kevin would have been shocked if said bad guys actually thought ahead for once.)

And now he was strapped down to a surgical table. He felt this weird mix of emotions; anger at being unable to escape, and fear that, unlike Psyphon, this guy managed to capture him. He looked around, but he really couldn't see anything of note. Or any weaponry, or ways to get out of his bindings.

Kevin sighed and continued to stare at the ceiling. He was getting tired of looking at it, but he'd learned that he could ignore the fear more if he kept his eyes focused on the stalactites over his head.

Or were they stalagmites? Kevin couldn't tell.

He looked back at his hands; they were bound by some odd maroon energy, with the AntiTix bound in some weird energy cage. His hand was starting to feel numb, but that was to be expected. Animo must have designed it to dampen and drain all energy from the AntiTrix. He nudged it a bit, but nothing happened.

If I was Hot Shot, I could burn right through those cuffs, Kevin thought. And then, he could feel his hand heat up for a second.

He glanced up to see his hand glowing a brilliant red, but only for a second, as he reverted back to human. Kevin grinned; maybe if he focused hard enough, he could break out of the cuffs. He turned all his attention into transforming that single hand.

He went through a few transformations: Radiohead, Black Ice, Wreckingbolt...all of them weren't of any help.

If only he had more arms, maybe that would fuck with the system. Or...slippery arms. Kevin grinned as he focused his arm into King Crimson. He was about to wreck the entire room and regret nothing of it. Joy painted Kevin's face as he attempted to shift fully-

Except it didn't work.

Kevin glanced back up at the dampener; the cage was now a brilliant yellow, and Animo was extracting something from it with a maroon tube. In Animo's red glasses was a reflection of King Crimson's silhouette. Animo yanked out the tube, and suddenly a flash of white blew up Kevin's field of vision and he cried out in pain.

"Thanks kid," Animo sneered. "You did exactly what I wanted you too."

Animo walked off as Kevin's arm suddenly felt like it was on fucking fire. A series of intense burning and piercing sensations ran up and down his arm, and everything turned blurry. The AntiTrix began flashing brightly, unable to process this rationally-

-he wanted out-

-he really wanted out-

-but, who else to go? King Crimson was gone- he had to cycle through all of them, all of them- his body changed each second without stopping.

Kevin ceased to exist as a person. The universe and all in it ceased to exist. Reality was a single point of formless, featureless pain, exquisite in its purity, unparalleled in its intensity.

And Kevin just cried out in terror-