Welcome back to your X-Tinction. It's been a wild year so far, and I'm looking forward to finishing this arc. This is probably my favorite chapter so far.
Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Journal date. January 1st. Start of a new year.
This city's a mess usually, but today is different. The streets are quiet except for the pouring rain. Deep underground, though, it's busy. I know this city's criminal empires and I know their secrets. The turmoil gives them plenty of opportunities in the shadows... They don't know I'm waiting for them there, too.
They've been trying to reach me again. Months later, and they still have the gall to say it wasn't my fault. It was. It will always be my fault. I wasn't fast enough. I watched her fall, and it's haunted me every goddamn day since. I'm doing this so no one else gets hurt.
These criminals, they pretend to be enemies in public, but they all have the same master. I damn well know Cinder Fall reached out to them, usurped control. They have to know SOMETHING.
And if they don't...
I'll still take them all down. Bring these people some peace.
- Ben Tennyson
Kuchinashi was always one of the seediest cities in the kingdom of Mistral. Crime families flocked here in droves to set up operations and prey on the populace. Sometimes it felt like those families were more in control than the actual police, unlike in the main reality where the criminals and the police were balanced in their authority. Sometimes, anyway. But even then, some people tried to escape that. Kuchinashi's mountainous environment made way for an expansive sewer system, more like a series of caves really, and that cave system was expansive enough to build in. An entire second settlement had cropped up in the deepest parts of Kuchinashi's underground, complete restaurants, neon signs advertisements, and homes. Of course, there were still those who resorted to barrel-fires for warmth and light, but they were surprisingly rare.
Even here, in a supposed haven, the criminal element wasn't entirely removed and that's what he was counting on. It was small-time gangs mostly, though the larger syndicates often used this place for deals. One of these syndicates was, unknowingly, being targeted by someone much more dangerous than themselves. The Black Sheep, the syndicate in question, were supposedly in the pocket of the Fall Maiden as part of an attempt to rebuild her personal power base and fill the role Roman's death left vacant. They were an all-Faunus organization with an almost cult-like bend to them, led by a singular "High Leader" with an "Inquisitor" acting as their right hand enforcer.
And they would lead him to Cinder. And she would lead him to Salem.
Salem couldn't die, he knew that, but he would absolutely make her feel like death was preferable.
Are you familiar with the term "survivor's guilt"? Survivor's guilt is a typical symptom of PTSD in which a person feels guilty for surviving a life-threatening incident that others did not. Feelings of guilt connected with surviving and continuing after someone else dies or is slain are referred to as general survivor guilt. This Ben, this Ben called Vengeance, lost everyone on the way from Atlas to Vacuo. Everyone. They didn't survive the crossing.
They all fell into the abyss.
Vengeance was angry, angry at himself, at Salem's pet Maiden, at all the circumstances that led him here. "What I wouldn't give for it to have been me instead," "She deserves to be here, not me," were phrases that often filled his mind now.
He was in a bad, bad place, metaphorically and literally.
Vengeance walked through the city clad in a green hooded cloak, studying each face as he walked. He was looking for someone specific, someone who was willing to lead him right to the Black Sheep's leadership.
After moving past several passersby, he managed to spot her. His contact was a girl with dark skin, with significantly darker spots visible on her arms, legs, and on her face like freckles. No, that was a bad comparison, they were more like scales. Her brown hair was tied up into a ponytail style that resembled a certain reptile's tail and her eyes were a light blue-gray hue. She wore a black and gray sleeveless stealth suit with short legs and black calf-high boots. She was talking with a bull-horned Faunus, actually helping him out with a small financial situation he was in. She patted him on the shoulder as he thanked her before he took his leave.
"They know you're giving away your cut?" Vengeance asked, startling the Faunus, making the scales on her body change to a yellow color.
"What the hell? I thought you said you would call me!" Ilia hissed.
"Text. And I did. Seems you were busy."
Ilia quickly took out her Scroll and checked her messages, finding a new unread one from Vengeance.
"Look," the chameleon Faunus sighed, "just cause I'm with them doesn't mean I agree with them."
"Right, right, sold you on sweet words and empty promises," Vengeance said, "Speaking of promises..."
"He's doing one of his 'sermons' right now. She's handling security."
"You mean gun deals," Vengeance corrected.
Ilia nodded.
"Time to ruin that, then. Take me to them," Vengeance demanded.
"Alright, alright. That was the plan anyway, no need for barking orders. Follow me," Ilia said.
She turned and led Vengeance through the streets of the sewer settlement. Deeper and deeper into the mountains and sewers they went, passing by Dust shops, used tech stalls, even tattoo places down here (many of them serving as fronts for the crime families' operations), until they eventually came to an abandoned theater, built into one of the larger caves in the underground. Walking the perimeter where several Black Sheep thugs, all sporting old White Fang Grimm masks, now painted jet black to reflect their new allegiance.
"Should be in there. Just be careful. They're giving shit over to some big player from Vacuo. Heard she's a Huntress, licensed and everything," Ilia warned.
"Know her name?" Vengeance asked as he brought up his Omnitrix.
"Esclados, I think."
"Doesn't ring a bell," this variant of Ben shrugged.
Ilia took note of his Omnitrix as he got ready to enter. The device bore a gauntlet-like band containing a black rectangular button and wrist couplings, extending up to almost half of the wearer's arm or forearm. It was dark green in color, and the dial was glowing a light green color.
Weird. I always thought it was a watch or something. Ilia thought.
"Just...one thing," Ilia said, before Vengeance dialed up an alien, "There's...this kid, Mata. He got roped into the Sheep a while back and...this is his first gig. Guy couldn't even hurt a fly if he wanted to, though. He's doing it to help out his family. So...give him the chance to run...please?"
Vengeance paused. "He's not my enemy, his bosses are. I promise he won't get hurt." Vengeance slammed down the dial, and transformed.
It looked like Ben had taken a page from Ilia's book, turning himself into a strange reptilian alien. The form had a slim body that resembled a large purple salamander with darker purple camo-esque spots all over his body and a short tail. He wore a black helmet with three triangular colored lenses, the left one being blue, the right red and the middle green, which hide his three eyes. The helmet also had a spike-shaped fin on the back of his head. He has four-fingered hands and three toes on his frog-like feet. He also has a wide mouth with sharp teeth.
The chameleon alien latched onto a wall and crawled away. Ilia watched him turn invisible and disappear from sight.
"Should sue him for that," Ilia huffed before turning to leave.
Ben crept along the ceiling, scanning around for the brothers. Where were those bastards? He wanted to get a BIG drop on them, before they could pull anything with this "Esclados" person. A person with no real 'presence' was always a wildcard.
"You know, I get it. The whole 'calm and collected priest' shit is your thing," a voice called out, "but it gets old really fucking fast." A tan-skinned woman with long, wavy, auburn hair, sporting a single streak of silver in it, walked out from behind the drawn curtains of the main stage. She was clad in a dark navy cropped long-sleeved shirt with a metal chain-like top attached, a silver shoulder cape with crimson trim flowing down her back, a pair of goggles situated atop her head, crimson torn off booty shorts that match her tatter scarf and thigh-high black leather boots.
"I simply ask for your patience, Rattlesnake," the infamous High Leader of the Black Sheep, Yuma, said as he followed close behind. The outfit he sported was very priestly, for lack of a better term, with a mostly red and black color scheme to it. It was a black and dark gray uniform with gold buttons and a similarly colored zipper covered by a red hooded cloak. Both the outfit and cloak both had holes in the back to allow for a pair of large bat wings to peek through.
"Just making sure it meets our standards. And yours, Rattlesnake," Yuma's enforcer, Trifa, added. She sported a similar outfit as Yuma, though her zipper was open to reveal her upper chest somewhat, exposing a series of gray veins that snaked up to her neck.
"Using my nickname is a cute trick, but it's not gonna work. Besides, rattlesnakes can still kill bats," Carmine hissed.
"And spiders can still kill snakes," Trifa countered with a smirk.
Chamalien crawled over to the source of the conversation and looked down at the trio. Found you, the lizard alien thought.
"Half my boss's transports have been taken out by Shade's new 'taskforce' or whatever they call themselves," Carmine huffed, "They've been on a rampage lately."
"It is quite alarming," Yuma nodded, "But, worry not. We promise these weapons can deal with him a lot better."
"Besides, these aren't your 'everyday' guns," Trifa smirked, before snapping her fingers. One of the Black Sheep thugs, a sheep-like Faunus with two forward-curving horns, brought out a distinctly alien weapon. It was a long, gray rifle with a drum-magazine like attachment. The current color was actually its base, but there were small traces of a paint job that had been scrubbed off, though not entirely.
"Supplier told us this is an Archimedian V-22 Deuteron Destroyer. Pretty impressive stuff, not easy to come by. Usually its the standard service rifle for the empire's colonial security, Archimedian Empire, I mean. With the help of…a contact let's call 'em, it's been modified, specifically the magazines. Tracer rounds, armor-piercing for when you need heavier firepower, the works," the spider Faunus explained.
Vengeance scowled. How they got those weapons was beyond him, but they were highly dangerous. The blaster could melt a person's insides with a single blast, and could do worse if they were damaged in some way.
"Damn...this is a nice toy," Carmine whistled as she looked it over.
"Of course, we would be poor business partners if we did not allow for a test run," Yuma said, motioning to an impromptu firing range with wooden targets. In a none-too-subtle move, all of the targets had a photo of Jacques Schnee taped to its head. In this universe, the former Schnee patriarch was in an even greater position of power, having merged the SDC and his own Dust company, Gelé Enterprises, into a single economic entity that held monopolies in Dust mining, distribution, and inventing new applications and hybrid forms of Dust.
Yuma aimed the alien weapon and pulled the trigger, unleashing a massive barrage of laser bolts and shredding the target...and the wall behind it. Carmine whistled as she walked over.
"Yeah, kinda overkill...but I damn well know that none of 'em could survive shots from one of these," Carmine praised the weapon's power.
"Well with your rep, we thought overkill was a selling point," Trifa smirked.
"Fair point," Carmine said, picking one up, "How much are you selling them for?"
"We're selling a lot of half charged ones at a bargain and selling the clips for higher," Yuma explained, "They're half charged as well. We want to keep the market going..."
"Makes sense...so what? A couple hundred?" Carmine asked.
"$600 for the rifle," Trifa answered, "We'll be selling the magazines by the crate...at $800."
"You're evil," Carmine grinned.
"We know how to sell our appearance and our weapons," Yuma grinned. "It's merely child's play at this point. With her grace directing us...we're nigh unstoppable."
Nigh unstoppable for a good reason, Chamalien thought as he skittered over.
"Any other tech you got?" Carmine asked.
"Actually, yeah," Trifa answered, "Got a new security system around here."
"Not...exactly what I'm looking for but...how's it special?"
"Multi-faceted. Security cameras can swap between multiple parts of the spectrum. Normal, infrared, ultraviolet and so on," Yuma explained.
"But don't just take our word for it," Trifa began, before tapping an earpiece, "let's give a demonstration."
On the other side, a Black Sheep grunt activated the cameras, cycling through different spectrum lenses. In the infrared mode, the grunt noticed something clinging to the ceiling.
"...boss, everything's working. But I think I got something," the grunt radioed in.
Fuck, Vengeance thought. The two Faunus criminals looked at the screen, as he quickly scurried away. They still managed to notice the figure sneaking away, and followed it into a very dark corner of the room.
Carmine, Trifa and Yuma all turned and surrounded that particular corner, thinking it was maybe just a competitor, someone they could handle. Ben stood completely still in the corner for a few moments.
"So. You can see me," Vengeance spoke in a thick German accent, "That's okay." Ben slapped down the Ultimatrix symbol, and morphed into a new form, that of a blue jellyfish-like alien with lightning-like white swipes on his body, a primary body with three-segmented skirt-like portions for his head, chest, and abdomen, and six long tentacles that served as two pairs of arms and legs.
"I want you to," Ben stretched out two of his tentacles and wrapped them around the brothers.
Yuma was ensnared, but Trifa was at least able to draw her weapon. The spider-themed butterfly-knife's blade quickly clicked together before the spider Faunus jabbed it into AmpFibian's tentacle. Vengeance winced from the jab but he didn't let go. Instead, he simply let a shocking current travel up his arms and into the crime bosses, not enough to kill them but definitely enough to knock them out.
"So you actually showed," Carmine said, drawing and twirling her sai in both hands, "Shame Bertilak's not here. You still owe him for the broken arm from the last time we fought."
"...I don't know who that is," Ben boredly said. Ben lashed out his opponent, sending out a multitude of sparking tentacles. Carmine blocked the attacks with ease, and jumped back. Carmine lifted up a bunch of grenades from a nearby crate and sent them flying towards Ampfibian.
A bolt of lightning launched from the jellyfish-like alien's body, shocking the first grenade and then jumping between the remaining explosives. The smoke covered Carmine's rush towards Ben, connecting her sai by the handles and the bottom sai shot out as a pole extended out between the two weapons. Now armed with a bladed staff, the rogue Huntress thought to flank Ben. She emerged from the smoke and took a swing at...where Ben once was. Corsac and Fennec lay on the ground, still out cold.
"The fuck?!" Carmine yelled.
Ampfibian rose up out of the ground, behind the self-proclaimed Rattlesnake of the Sands. Before she could react, blue tentacles wrapped around Carmine and electrocuted her.
"Sleep," Ampfibian rasped, dropping her to the ground. Ben turned to see the sheep faunus, holding his gun at the giant jellyfish.
"Mata, right?" Ben asked.
The Faunus nodded.
"...get out of here. Run," Ben said, "You shouldn't get caught up in this. Go back home. See your family."
"W-why?" Mata asked, "Why are you letting me go?"
"Because," Ben replied, "A friend would do the same. Now, go."
Mata hesitated for just the briefest second, really only out of fear. The sheep Faunus then dropped his gun and threw the black Grimm mask from his face and made a mad dash for the exit.
"Your compassion wounds you," a voice called out.
Ampfibian turned around to see one of the Black Sheep's leaders, Trifa, back on her feet. She had sheathed her signature knife and managed to grab the Destroyer. Remnants of webbing on the stock clued Ben in on the how.
"Huh. Thought you'd be out," Ben muttered.
"Trained up my Aura for my White Fang days," Trifa hissed, "Comes in handy."
"And now you're just gonna try to shoot me?"
"That's why I'm holding this, isn't it?" Trifa smirked and gestured to the weapon.
"Good," Ben said. He darted over to the spider Faunus, and shifted forms. Spidermonkey had suddenly webbed the gun against the wall, and tossed the Black Sheep's second-in-command through a wall and into the streets.
The patrolling Black Sheep thugs turned to the source of the commotion and aimed their guns towards it. Seeing one of their bosses on the ground made them worry. Seeing a six-limbed, blue-furred monkey made them afraid.
One of the Black Sheep goons began to radio in for the others as two more ran over. Seeing Ben, they charged in to fight. Ben flipped through the air, jumping atop one of them and webbing them down a nearby wall. The second one began shooting at him, but Spidermonkey quickly closed in on him. Ben brutally began clawing and punching at him in a ravenous flurry of attacks. The still free thug finished radioing in for reinforcements just in time to see that ruthless flurry of attacks.
"...Oh, fuck," the grunt muttered. Running was probably a good idea here.
But, what if they could take down this thorn in their side right now? Ben Tennyson was on a rampage, and if a bunch of random grunts took him down...
"Bring in the big guns, now!" the grunt yelled into his radio, before taking aim with an SMG.
The still free grunt took a deep breath and went to open fire on Spidermonkey, only to see him gone. His eyes darted around the arena, before he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
"Youuuu're right behind me, aren't you?" the grunt asked.
"Took too long," Spidermonkey shrugged, before webbing up the grunt. Several more grunts made their way towards Ben and formed up, essentially making a firing squad to try and gun the vigilante down. Though, oddly the middle was left open. Before Spidermonkey could make a snide remark, the sound of revving engines caught his attention.
"Always wanted to kill a Schnee," a gruff voice said, "You were second on the list." The man in question was a brute of a Black Sheep thug, wearing a sleeveless jacket and a unique, full face-mask. Another thing of note was his weapon, a pair gauntlets affixed with jagged chainsaws.
"What makes you think you could take either of us?" Ben's eyes narrowed.
The Lieutenant didn't take kindly to that, growling and getting into a combat stance. Ben shot out a web and pulled the opponent closer. He slammed them to the ground, ripped off the mask, and gripped his opponent by the face.
"Something to remember me by," Ben hissed. His hand shot back, ripping some skin off of the Lieutenant's face with his claws.
The Black Sheep Lieutenant roared in pain, the chainsaws coming to a halt as his hands shot up to cover his face in pain. The sounds coming from their boss terrified the other Black Sheep grunts. They started to look to each other, full of doubt and fear.
Ben then heard someone walking forward, whistling oh so casually with each step he took. Vengeance raised a brow at that demeanor as a new face stepped forward. His armor was clearly stolen from the Plumbers, now sporting a steel color with an orange trim. He had orange glasses on, brown hair with an undercut and just a very punchable face. The man looked down at the chainsaw-wielding thug, writhing in pain.
"Radcliffe, Radcliffe, Radcliffe...man, I thought you were cool," the man kicked Radcliffe in the face, knocking him out.
"You're not Black Sheep," Vengeance muttered.
"No, just hiding my wolf tail with the armor," the new face quipped, "Name's Felix. Gotta admit, you are really different from the last time we met. You got...edgier. Kinda weird."
"If we met, I don't remember."
"Figures. Just another gun for hire, well, after I stole all my tech from the Plumbers. Mercenary work just brings in more money, ya know? So, the bat offered up a nice paycheck to work security for this little deal and now, here I am. Now, I'll admit, I've done my homework on you, but I'm a bit outta the loop with some of your more recent stunts, what with everyone losing contact to Atlas and all. There are rumors, but I don't take much stock in those. Where are your friends? Ya know, the furry one, the dragon girl, the girl with the red hood-"
Ben bolted towards Felix as soon as he even dared to mention her.
"Oh, so the rumors were true," Felix grinned, as he grabbed Ben's throat before the boy could reach him. He slammed his foot down on Spidermonkey's tail.
"You have my sincerest condolences, Benji. Really, you do!" Felix taunted, as he pulled out a knife.
"I'd say I'd make it quick...buuuut I'm not that familiar with alien anatomy so…this might sting a bit," the mercenary smirked and thrust the knife into Spidermonkey's shoulder. He screeched before headbutting Felix and, with his guard down, the mercenary let go of Vengeance's throat. He pulled his tail out from beneath Felix's boot and hissed.
"Now, there's the Benji I was expecting!" Felix cheered.
Felix attempted to knee Spidermonkey in the gut but Ben jumped back away from the hit. Ben managed to evade the mercenary's opening cuts in his next barrage, but Felix was able to land a slash on his chest. Ben exclaimed as he looked down and noticed the small wound, a bit of blood dripping out, not much but still. Felix pulled out a taser and tackled the alien to the ground.
"Kid, I hope this does more than sting," the mercenary growl, before he electrocuted his opponent by jabbing the taser into Ben's face.
The Arachnochimp screeched out in pain, a sound that made even some of the Black Sheep thugs wince a bit. Felix smirked as the current ran through the alien's body, before he suddenly felt Spidermonkey's feet kick into his chest, sending him flying off the alien and landing on his back.
"Well, that sorta worked out like I hoped," Felix chuckled as he got up. Without a second wasted, he lobbed his knife at his opponent, which hit the still disoriented Ben in the arm and caused him to shout once again. Felix ran up to his opponent and removed his knife from the Arachnochimp's body before slamming him to the ground.
"Come on, kid. Where's your hustle? It was there a minute ago," Felix said, beginning to stomp down on his grounded opponent's chest, "Or does it take bringing up those lost friends of yours to really get you goin'? That it?!"
Spidermonkey screeched, taking Felix by surprise. The simian alien swept the mercenary's legs out from under him and, before the well-armed hired gun could even hit the ground, he found himself being drop kicked in the chest. He rolled down the alley, back towards the unconscious body of the Black Sheep Lieutenant.
"Damn...fighting dirty now. See, now you're just proving my point," Felix taunted, before seeing Spidermonkey twisting the dial on the Omnitrix.
"What, hurt that badly? Switching already?" the mercenary asked, a little insulted.
"In a way," Spidermonkey narrowed his eyes at Felix before slamming down on the Omnitrix symbol. Four metal prongs jutted out and connected to the simian alien's chest, followed by lines of green light moving over his body like a scanner, his body actually changing as the lines passed. The Arachnochimp's form suddenly became muscular, four of his six arms disappearing entirely. The two that remained became larger and were covered in darker fur. In place of the four monkey-arms, four spider legs erupted from the now gorilla-sized alien's back, lifting the behemoth off the ground.
"You wanted to know if I was strong just because I had all of them at my back. Well, thanks to one of them, I'm more than strong enough to throw your sorry ass halfway across the city," Ultimate Spidermonkey growled.
"...Ok...didn't expect that. But, bigger targets just means easier to hit," Felix scoffed.
"Cute. You think you're gonna hit me," Ben opened his jaw, and began to spew webs from his mouth. Felix was overwhelmed by the webs, and was quickly spun into a cocoon. Ben growled as he then slammed the cocoon down to the ground, tossed it in the air, and sliced through it with its jaws. Felix fell to the ground with new cut marks in his armor, but Ben wasn't done with him yet. He spewed a web at Felix's foot and then attached it to the side of the theater's walls.
Felix was left dangling mere inches above the ground like a piñata. Ben rushed over, and howled in sheer rage, unleashing a powerful flurry of blows. Felix had his body bruised and stabbed by a mix of Ben's fists and spider legs. To make it clear, this was Ben holding back.
Ben finished up his onslaught with Felix by punching him once more, sending the mercenary through the wall and back into the rundown theater.
Ultimate Spidermonkey looked back to the assembled would-be firing line. The Black Sheep grunts looked at each other in fear before they simultaneously let their weapons clatter to the ground. The gorilla alien spun around and fired webs from his mouth, the jaws splitting apart as he spun each thug into a cocoon to be retrieved by the authorities.
He was about to change back, before he heard the sound of a weapon charge up behind him. He didn't even turn around as one of his spider legs lashed out at Yuma, who had gotten back to his feet and grabbed the Archimedean Deuteron Destroyer from Trifa. Before the bat Faunus could truly process what just happened, he saw the front half of the weapon fall to the ground thanks to one clean cut. The spider leg responsible for the act then jutted out and impaled the High Leader's hood, missing his head by mere inches, though it did still leave a small scratch. The leg lifted Yuma up and above Ultimate Spidermonkey, bringing him down to be face level with the evolved alien.
"Now...I'm going to be polite the first time I ask. Every time after, you get hurt. Where. Is. Cinder?" Vengeance growled.
"S-she said she'd be in McLaren's Pub if anything important came up. She was g-going to converse with some potential candidates!" Yuma panicked, trying to inch away from getting his face stabbed off.
"Candidates? She's really looking for more people?" Ben growled.
"Plenty of people are willing to side with the woman who killed Ironwood," Yuma answered.
"I shouldn't be surprised, honestly..."
"There is...one other thing," Yuma grinned, "She's looking for people to kill you."
"...really? She won't lower herself to finish what she started?" Vengeance felt genuinely insulted now.
"More too busy. She's been planning something ever since she returned from Solitas. I don't know what, nobody does!"
"...all the more reason to see her," Ben threw Yuma aside and webbed him to a wall. "Expect authorities soon."
Ben reverted back to human and threw his hood back on again. He stepped out into the streets once more. He had a location and now he would have his namesake.
Freezing, that was the only way to describe the downpour in the city today. Ben and Ruby huddled close under an umbrella. Paradox walked around feeling completely unphased by the rain, sighing.
"I remember when Ozma and I would walk around these parts...this used to be a good town," Paradox lamented.
"You knew Ozma?" Ruby asked.
"Most of them, yes," Paradox sighed, "They all died so young..."
"Paradox...this Ben...why did you take us to him first?" Ben asked.
"He needs somebody to give him that spark of hope," Paradox replied.
"You said he lost everyone...what...what did you mean by that?" Ruby asked.
"I can't give too much away, a majority of the details count as spoilers," Paradox began.
"So much is a spoiler, isn't it?"
"Oh, very much so. However, I can give you the gist of things. Salem came out of the shadows and struck directly at Atlas. And, despite a good effort...most of its defenders fell...and so did the city. Ironwood was killed in defense of the city, buying time for Winter to lead an evacuation. Your group came up with a plan which was…risky if I may say."
"When the hell did this happen?" Ben asked.
"Three months ago in this dimension," Paradox explained carefully, "He began his crusade of retribution on Halloween."
"My birthday," Ruby whispered. She was clearly affected by that.
"It affected him, as well. Believe me. But I do believe he'll be in need of some assistance. His crusade is nearing a very...pivotal point. He's about to go after the one who caused so much misery."
"He's going after Salem?!" Ben yelled.
"Thankfully, no. Well...I suppose 'thankfully' is a matter of opinion. He's going after Cinder."
"She's here?" Ben asked, looking around, "Alive?"
"Dimensional differences, Benjamin," Paradox hummed, "But, yes. Cinder's at a bar, looking for people to join her crusade."
"She's...at a bar? Huh..." Ruby muttered.
"Now then, despite what he thinks, you might wish to add your own expertise to the confrontation," Paradox admitted.
"I'd like to give her a piece of my mind..." Ben said, punching his fist into his other palm.
"And I'd like to spook her if I'm dead," Ruby joked.
"But...it's essential that Ben goes through with this," Paradox admitted.
"So, we can't stop him, but we're allowed to help him. Works for me," Ben said.
"Not even that. We can only watch..." Paradox sighed, "And hope the rain falls just right."
"What?"
"You'll understand soon."
"O...kay...well...can you at least tell us which bar we need to go?" Ruby asked.
"McLaren's Pub, not too far from here. Oz and I actually helped build it, you know," Paradox bemused.
McLaren's Pub was precisely what one thought of when it came to a seedy pub. A little run-down on the outside, serviceable on the inside, and even advertised by a small neon sign. Seated in a corner booth, dressed in a disguise that was more fitting of one of Kuchinashi's poor was none other than Cinder.
"You know...you never actually told me who you were. You just called me up, already suspicious that you knew the number, and told me you wanted to 'make a deal,'" Cinder said, holding a glass of cheap wine in her bandaged hand.
"Ah, pray forgive me. My eagerness got the better of me. Greetings and bienvenue, Miss Fall. My name...is V.V. Argost," the eccentric man smirked. He was definitely a character, wearing a blue and black cloak that covered most of his body, and what skin of his that was exposed, mostly his arms, was light-blue, almost white in hue.
"And the big, silent one?" Cinder pointed to Argost's Hazel-sized butler, for lack of a better term.
"Ah, pay no mind to Munya. He believes that actions speak louder than words...and when he acts, my is it a spectacle."
"Must not be that impressive, Salem never said a word about you. My sources in the underworld had more to say though. mentioned you were a...peculiar character, and that you could provide us with some certain artifacts and creatures..." Cinder said.
"Creatures? Bah. They're called 'Cryptids', child." Argost said, holding up his hand- a snake like creature slithered up his arm. It had two heads, and a strange pattern on them.
"I've seen two headed snakes before. King Taijitu ring a bell?" Cinder said boredly.
"Oh, come now. Do I really need to bust out my big guns, as they say, to convince you?" Argost sighed.
"I need to know my time is worthwhile..."
"...I can tell this partnership will be beneficial," Argost smirked, before whistling. It took a minute, but soon a large magenta-furred and horned tiger-like creature emerged from the shadows behind Munya. The creature growled when it laid eyes on Cinder, but it quickly calmed down when Argost placed a hand on its head and began to pet it like any other house pet.
"What…is that?" Cinder asked, definitely intrigued now.
"A rakshasa. Sometimes a feared demon, other times bound as a tomb guardian in India."
"Hopefully your mistress actually treats it well. Despite my own...methods to collect them, I do still care for the animals. After all, Grimm don't need to eat or drink...or so I've heard."
"Oh, they eat..." Cinder smiled, as she reached to pet the Rakshasa as well, but then got the strangest suspicion she was being watched.
"Were you followed?" she asked, looking up at Argost.
Argost shook his head, "No, no...I don't believe so..."
"You don't believe so?" Cinder snapped.
"No one even knows I'm here. Besides, even if they did, the easiest assumption would be that I'm here doing research for my next show segment," Argost explained.
Show? The hell was he-questions that Cinder could ask later. Her hand started to heat up, ready to draw one of her signature glass swords the moment something went awry.
"Someone's watching us," Cinder muttered, before the room started to get very, very cold.
"Oh, I've been watching for a while," a cold voice rasped, as it phased its way in from the floor.
"What a fascinating specimen of a mothman," Argost muttered. Cinder didn't waste a second, once the Necrofriggian was through the floor, she lashed out with her newly formed glass sword. The weapon passed harmlessly through the moth-like alien as Big Chill quickly turned intangible again.
"Tennyson..." Cinder hissed.
Ben grabbed Cinder by the throat, and began to freeze it. "You took everything from me."
"...good." Cinder said, with a smile that would absolutely send him over the edge.
He tightened his grip, the freezing process proceeding even faster now. Cinder's own heat began to compete with it, keeping the cold at bay and keeping her throat intact. She lost her voice once, and never again.
Cinder's body started to heat up even more, until she became too hot to touch. Ben was forced to release his grip, as Cinder brought out her swords.
"Have you come to kill me?" Cinder asked, "Do you seriously think this will bring you peace?"
"Oh...I know it won't. But the peace your death brings isn't mine. It's theirs," Big Chill hissed.
"Hmmm...while there is definite tension between you two...I do believe this clash is best observed from a distance. Munya! We're leaving," Argost declared.
"Oh, you're not going anywhere..." Ben said, as he froze the room. Ben glared at him. "I know your criminal record, Argost."
"Oh, I see...you're a mega fan..." Argost grinned.
"'Mega fan,' sure. I'll ask for an autograph after I write her obituary," Ben turned his attention back to Cinder.
"Well then...by all means!" Argost yelled, just taking a seat and enjoying a drink. Munya was going to go after Ben too, but was stopped by his master.
"Now, now, Munya, this is a personal drama. You'd only get in the way. Come, take a seat and enjoy the fireworks," Argost smirked.
"Shut up!" Cinder called over to her would-be partner before rushing in with her blades. To counter, Big Chill made icy mockeries of the Fall Maiden's own blades. The two sets of blades clashed, Cinder's eyes widening a little when she saw the swords. That momentary surprise turned to anger as she pushed back against Ben's own strength. She followed up with a series of slashes, some being blocked by the frozen blades while others simply passed through Big Chill's intangible form.
Ben lunged forward, dropping one of his swords. He smashed into Cinder's face with an icy mace surrounding his hand. Cinder stumbled backwards, as she frowned. She pointed her finger at Ben and unleashed a bolt of lightning. Ben phased through the floor...and the beam of lightning missed Argost's head.
"Terrible shot," Argost said.
Cinder's eyes flared with Maiden energy, a small part of her anger directed at Argost's color commentary, but the majority of it was still focused on Ben. She began scanning the room, looking for any sign of the Necrofriggian. If an attack came, she'd be ready to counter.
"Tell me, Cinder." Ben's voice rasped. "You've been burnt...and you've been frozen. But, tell me..."
Cinder heard the sound of Ben slapping down the Ultimatrix.
"Have you ever been burnt by ice?"
The silver prongs extended out from the Ultimatrix symbol as green energy surged over Big Chill's body. Much like Spidermonkey, Big Chill's body became larger, more muscular, and his color scheme changed all across his body. Replacing the usual cold blues, different hues of orange drew attention to the Necrofriggian. Ice-like clusters grew on Big Chill's wrists, shoulders, and legs, acting as armor. The now fiery-colored Necrofriggian gained sharper wings and, surprisingly enough, a mane that resembled a flame.
"This form...it's similar to Albedo's own..." Cinder said, as Ben raised up his hand.
The room dropped to below zero, but Cinder refused to yield. She created huge flames from her palms, but they were slowly reduced by the cold air around.
"Ah, reminds me of home," Argost chuckled as he took a drink.
"Cold enough to extinguish the flame..." Cinder muttered, genuinely surprised.
"And cold...just like your dead body..." Ben's eyes gleamed with a dark determination. Ben's hands were emitting cold 'flames', and it quickly expanded. Shards of ice suddenly appeared to impale his opponent.
The spikes launched at Cinder, but the Fall Maiden was able to slice and shatter the spikes as they got in range. The spikes stopped coming and Cinder smirked, making ready to race towards the evolved Necrofriggian. And then she saw Ben smirking.
In another bit of mimicry, Ultimate Big Chill snapped his fingers and the shards of the broken ice spikes began to hiss and glow. The Fall Maiden looked down at debris and gasped, dodging out of the way as the pieces detonated. Instead of fire and smoke, ice enveloped the area Cinder had been. Just a second slower and she would've been trapped in an oddly shaped ice formation.
Ultimate Big Chill huffed again, as his hands started to produce more 'wisps of ice'. He began to throw more spikes at Cinder, who was able to block them all with a quickly summoned glass shield, but then Ben swiped his hands upwards. A powerful ice tornado suddenly appeared before Cinder and rampaged through the room, throwing the Fall Maiden through the nearest wall.
Argost and Munya were thrown into a wall as well, watching Ben cloak himself and walk outside.
"Curiouser and curiouser does that boy become, Munya..." Argost sighed, standing back up, "I suppose we should probably depart. We can reschedule our meeting with Miss Fall..."
Argost looked over at the frostbitten rakshasa. "And obtain a new specimen," the collector sighed with some regret, "That one has joined the great beyond..."
Munya gave a curt grunt and nodded his head, turning to leave with his master. Only, when the two got their bearings and began to leave, they stopped dead in their tracks again. Staring right at them was a girl with a red cape and hood and...Ben?
Argost actually had to double take, looking over his shoulder to make sure Vengeance was still back there. Sure enough, the sounds of ice and fire clashing echoed out from the front of the building.
"Well...that's odd, isn't it? Here you are, while at the same time, Miss Fall is fighting for her life against...another you. A doppelganger perhaps?" Argost mused.
"Hey, isn't that the Argost dude?" Ruby asked, "From Weird World?"
"Yeah," Ben said with a deep inhale, "Zak told me he was apparently a BIG threat in his sphere of the world...and killed a lot of people."
"I see this Ben is also a big fan," Argost sighed, "Munya, dispose of the girl. I'll handle the boy," Argost reached into his cloak and pulled out a Tibetan Fire Sword.
Munya nodded and walked towards Ruby, cracking his neck as he went. Ruby spun Crescent Rose in her hands and got into a combat stance, ready for whatever this guy would throw at her. Part of her thought this would be like fighting Hazel.
But then he stopped about halfway away from her. Ruby thought maybe he'd bring out his own massive weapon, a hammer maybe, or start firing away with pistols.
The last thing Ruby expected to see was the man's skin turn a deep shade of red before four spider legs erupted from his back. One of his eyes remained the same, while the other became compound like a spider's. His hands morphed to end in claws and he tore off the top of his formal, butler-like suit.
"What the fuck is with this guy?" Ruby gasped.
"Do forgive Munya's rather unsightly transformation," Argost announced, "Papuan giant spider DNA is not for the faint of heart!"
"...eh, I've seen worse." Ruby shrugged, as she dashed forward while swinging Crescent Rose, doing an upward slash that launched her foe back.
Argost sighed, as Ben activated the Omnitrix. Intriguing... Argost thought. This boy does not possess the same watch as the other Benjamin. Not a doppelganger, but perhaps he is from a parallel world. Certainly worth investigating.
Ben slapped down the Omnitrix, and transformed into a new alien. had the appearance of a thick, muscular yeti-like alien. He had yellow and black fur, along with four gray fingers and toes. He had green eyes with black pupils and yellow lightning bolt-shaped horns. He wore a green and white belt where the Omnitrix symbol was located.
"Eh?" Ben said, looking down at himself, "Who the heck is this?"
Argost took advantage of Ben's confusion and blitzed towards his target with a lunge. Ben let out an ape like yelp, as he held his hand out and unleashed a powerful burst of electricity that then froze Argost in ice.
"Okey?," Ben blinked, "That was pretty cool."
The ice prison then began to glow red, the light emanating from the sword that Argost held. The ice cracked and hissed as steam began to rise up before shattering entirely. The blade Argost held was glowing with heat, like it had just come out of a forge.
"Tibetan Fire Sword. A relic from home. Though I shall admit, it pains me to fight a form that resembles such a noble yeti," Argost lamented in an over-dramatic fashion.
"Okey, man," Ben said, "Though that gives me an idea. You can call me...Shocksquatch."
"Borish name, boy." Argost said.
"Hey, I know a dude who'd call this guy 'Electricyeti'. Take your lumps," Ben joked. He took a few more swings at Argost, who blocked them with the flat end of his sword. Ben increased his power with a powerful burst of electricity, and slammed his hands on the ground. Argost jumped away from the electrical outburst, which quickly froze over.
The cryptid collector pointed his blade at the sasquatch-like alien and began launching fireballs his way. Ben quickly shocked the ground and let a wall of ice rise up in front of him. The fireballs impacted and began to crack the ice.
Meanwhile, Ruby dodged a series of piercing strikes from Munya's spider arms, letting the legs just pierce the air or jab themselves into the ground. After the latest stab, the human-spider hybrid threw in a devastating haymaker to catch Ruby off guard, and while the hit did connect, Ruby managed to block it with Crescent Rose's blade.
Ruby slammed Crescent Rose's blade into the ground and fired up to three bullets at the spider-like opponent. Powerful bursts of rock dust smashed against Munya's skin.
Surprisingly enough though, he didn't seem harmed. Ruby narrowly dodged another hit from the hybrid, this time slashing at him with her scythe. Looked like Munya's hide was tougher than a Goliath's.
Ruby switched her blade to Crescent Rose's energy scythe mode, turning her blade into fantastic light blue color. Ruby sprinted at her mutant target, leaping above their head and slashing down with a single diagonal slash.
Munya's head was immediately frozen thanks to the ice Dust blade. The spider-hybrid tried to chip away at the icy prison with his spider legs, but Ruby quickly severed those with another slash of her scythe.
A muffled screech could be heard from within the ice as he recoiled in pain from losing two appendages.
"Please don't have a healing factor," Ruby muttered to herself before pressing her advantage.
The ice wall Shocksquatch had erected finally shattered with one more blow from Argost's blade. The collector rushed in, slashing at Ben with the skill of a duelist. In some ways, it reminded Ben of Weiss' fighting style, just with a traditional blade instead of a rapier. The fur on his arms stood on end, sparks arcing across portions of the coat before ice formed over his forearms and hands, becoming an impromptu shield. Ben brought the ice-shield up to block the slashes that Argost dealt out and if the shield broke because of too many direct hits, it would just reform.
This guy's totally different from Shock Rock, Ben thought. Shock Rock would have Argost on the ropes, but this guy can back himself up a bit more.
Shocksquatch let out another powerful yipe as he unleashed a circular blast of energy that knocked Argost back.
Argost was a lot more agile than he looked, managing to land on his feet after the blast hit.
"An impressive specimen to be sure. Starting to remind me of an old friend with your ingenuity, Tennyson," the cryptid collector admitted, "A pity he tried to stop me and became one of the first items in my collection."
"...well that's not ominous at all," Ben deadpanned.
"Speaking of that..." Argost opened his cloak, as a bunch of winged cryptids flew out of the dark. Ben took a deep breath, and shouted, firing a beam of electricity out of his mouth that struck all the flying creatures down, freezing them solid.
The flyers were just a distraction as Argos used them to close the distance again and actually managed to land a hit on Ben, slashing at the massive yeti alien's leg. The attack hurt, searing the area and making Ben drop to a knee. Another slash came at his back not even a second later, the blade burning and singing some of his fur.
Ben's eyes lit up. "Now that's just not cool…" Ben huffed.
Shocksquatch's fur began to charge up, as Ben held out his hand. He quickly accumulated electricity in his hand and unleashed a high concentration of it. The beam of energy struck Argost in the chest, electrocuting and freezing him at the same time.
Shocksquatch huffed, as he stood back up. "That takes care of that, hopefully..."
It would have to for now. Ben turned his attention over to Ruby, seeing if she needed help with Munya. Sure enough, Argost's butler was also on ice, thanks to Ruby's constant barrage of ice Dust shots.
"Lemme give you a hand there, Rue!" Ben said, before inhaling and gathering lightning in their mouth. Ben launched a giant beam of lightning, and it struck and froze Munya entirely.
"...AWESOME," Ruby said, as Ben walked over.
"Yeah! Thinking old Shocksquatch here might be an up and coming playlist star," Ben grinned.
Their celebration was cut short when a pillar of flame exploded from the front of the building, no doubt Cinder's handiwork.
"Shit," Ruby cursed, "let's go make sure your other self wasn't just incinerated!"
"Paradox said we couldn't interfere with the battle!" Ben warned. "What if we screw something up?"
"Oh, believe me, you have indeed 'screwed something up!'"
Ben spun around to see Argost, having broken free from the ice, sword held high.
"How the hell are you still standing after being frozen solid?" Ruby said.
"I have my secrets, girl!" Argost grinned. "To me, that cold was more akin to a refreshing summer's day."
"...Ten bucks says this guy's an alien," Ben muttered.
"Fifteen," Ruby quipped.
"I can hear you, you cretins! Betting on the truth of a man's secrets? Have you no manners?" Argost lamented, "Ah...but what am I to do with the younger generation? Mun-"
The collector then noticed the frozen spider-butler behind him and rubbed his eyes in annoyance.
"Very well then!" Argost whistled, which not only got Ben and Ruby's attention, putting them on edge, but Cinder's and Vengeance's as well.
"The hell was that?" Cinder asked, turning towards the whistle.
"Don't get distracted," Ultimate Big Chill said, as he upped his production of what can only be described as wispy 'flames', "I'm not done with you yet..."
Cinder sighed, figuring it was nothing, before renewing her attack on Vengeance. She rushed in, dodging and weaving through motes of fire being launched at her. Ultimate Big Chill took flight when the Maiden reached him, forcing the glass swords, already in the motion of a cross slash, to miss entirely.
Vengeance formed two large swords out of ice, one in each hand, before he flew forward and struck Cinder with an intersecting, cross-shaped slash. Cinder created two obsidian gauntlets around her hands to block the attack and hissed in exertion.
Ben took a deep inhale.
Cinder's pupils shrank in shock.
Ben exhaled and froze Cinder solid.
Vengeance sighed in relief, seeing Cinder reduced to an ice statue. He turned back to human and began walking towards the Maiden, her face frozen in panic. This version of Ben then pulled out a knife, one that he'd carried with him ever since that day in Atlas. It wasn't big nor really made for combat. If anything it was more ceremonial, an ornate silver blade with red metal trim and a black hilt, a red rose symbol inlay.
"Finally...they can all rest now," Vengeance sighed, raising the knife and bringing it down-
But then the ice began to heat up, and Cinder burst free from her icy prison. Ben didn't even need to react for more than a second. His body 'warped' away, putting a few good feet between him and Cinder.
"Did you REALLY think it would be that easy, Benjamin?" Cinder smiled.
"...was hoping...admittedly," Vengeance growled.
"Ah, if only. Maybe next time...or maybe next time, I'll send you to her. A happy little reunion."
Vengeance's pupils shrank in anger.
"Or I'll send you to her and have Ruby kill you AGAIN," Vengeance growled, as he activated the Ultimatrix once more. After a green flash, Cinder was greeted with another transformation, a new face, from this Cinder's perspective. The form was that of a heavy alien, seemingly locked in a dark green-teal oven-like containment suit, with three slits for eye holes.
"What's this? Did your little watch glitch out and give you a walking oven?" Cinder laughed.
"No," Ben spoke with a heavy Russian-sounding accent, "This...is how I kill you." Vengeance's grates lit up and fired multiple bursts of energy at Cinder. When those shots hit, they HURT.
Cinder tried dodging out of the way, but the blasts came faster than she could avoid them. Again and again she was blasted with whatever energy this walking furnace was shooting out at her.
"You feel that? That's REAL heat." Vengeance's voice was booming, "These are the fires of Hell that will consume you in life, Cinder Fall!" The alternate Ben's eye beams became more and more powerful, as he began to trace Cinder's movements...
"You traded in one tiresome trait for another. You've gone from making jokes to being the most stereotypical loner someone could imagine!" Cinder smirked. Much like how Ben had gone through a personality shift, so too had this Cinder. It was almost like a reverse of the prime universe. Vengeance was far more serious and driven, though understandably so. Cinder had gained more confidence, actually taking some advice her prime counterpart should listen to: treating your allies as more than just "assets" that can be tossed aside.
Vengeance jabbed his hand into the ground and created a massive eruption with lava spewing out of the ground. Cinder jumped back from the eruptions, avoiding . The lava was deadly, not so much because of the lava's radiant heat, but because of the super-heated jet of air that comes out of it. That could burn Cinder's skin...and given a certain body part of hers lacked any Aura...
Vengeance knew about that little weakness and decided to exploit it. He pushed down on the ground again and again, creating a field of lava geysers that forced the Maiden to dodge and weave through them all. Every chance she got, she tried to conjure up her glass bow, get an arrow nocked and ready to fire, but the ground betrayed every time. Columns of magma shot skyward and forced her to reposition.
"Do you know how much PAIN you put me through when you knocked all of them down?" Vengeance yelled over the eruptions, "I blamed myself for DAYS, I didn't get a wink of sleep. I could have saved them, saved all of them! I had the power to! BUT YOU!"
Ben unleashed a powerful beam of energy. "YOU HAD TO KEEP ME BUSY!"
Cinder formed a massive glass shield to protect herself from the energy, hoping that it would deflect or maybe even refract the energy.
"If you want someone to blame, blame OZPIN!" Cinder shouted, "If not for him, I doubt your little girlfriend wouldn't have even BEEN in Atlas!"
"AND NOW YOU'RE TRYING THAT TRICK?! HOW DUMB DO YOU THINK I AM?!" Vengeance roared.
"Oh, I do hope that's not rhetorical. I'd love to go into detail..."
Ben slapped down the Omnitrix, and another alien took his place. Cinder's shield was suddenly pierced by a massive drill. She gasped as Armodrillo punched her back with a powerful piston boosted strike.
Cinder quickly coated her hands in obsidian armor and looked back up just in time to see the massive Talpaedan rushing towards her, drill aimed right at her chest. Just what she thought he'd try. The Maiden caught the drill in her hands and, while not stopping all the momentum of the attack, she did manage to stop it from connecting. The drill spun and scraped against her stone gloves, sending sparks flying as Vengeance tried to get past the defense.
"Where was this back in Atlas? You actually might've killed me with this kind of drive!" Cinder taunted. A roar, reminiscent of an engine and full of rage, emanated from behind Armodrillo's helmet and Cinder, admittedly, felt a small tinge of fear from that. Who wouldn't?
Armodrillo plunged his hands into the ground and sent a wave of pressure through the earth with his drills. The drills caused a mountain of rock to erupt from under his opponent. Cinder was pelted with rocks- Armodrillo boosted his way over to Cinder, and smashed down on the Maiden with his superior size.
Dark orange Aura flared and flickered around the Maiden's body, the sheer size of Armodrillo dealing quite a bit of damage to Cinder's defense.
Armodrillo grabbed Cinder and began to shake her like crazy. Cinder felt like her brain was being bounced around inside her skull.
"Once I break your Aura," Armodrillo growled, "these vibrations will shatter your bones like glass...and then I'll take the other eye."
"I...almost...believe you...there!" Cinder taunted.
Cinder's eye lit up. In the world we've been following, Cinder lost an arm and gained a Grimm substitute. Cinder's arm was never lost in this one...instead, Cinder's prosthetic was reserved for her eye.
And she could see all of Armodrillo's weak points with this Grimm replacement. And there was a big one...in his arm.
"Consider this...payment...for...BEACON!" Cinder yelled, forming up a glass sword and stabbing it right into the massive weak point in Armodrillo's arm.
Vengeance's scream could be heard echoing through the whole underground cave system. Ben and Ruby heard it, and so did Argost.
"...now THAT sounds painful," Argost sighed, as he swung his sword around. "But, c'est la vie."
"I'm not sure that works here, dude." Ben said, as he slapped down the Omnitrix to shift forms and transformed into another weird alien. The weirdest thing about it was...he could see...everything around him. Everything. It was like he had 360 vision. It was a bit disorienting.
"Uh...Ben?" Ruby asked. Ruby was looking at a very BIZARRE alien. His entire upper-body is covered with green eyes, although he ironically has no eyes on his face, which consisted of a mouth and a very large pair of bat-like ears. He had dark yellow skin with lighter yellow skin on his chest. He wore black pants with white bands on them and a white belt with the original Omnitrix symbol on it.
"I...am so lost." Ben said.
"Multiple eyes...plenty of cryptids in my collection have such a trait. Speaking of my collection," Argost smirked.
With the odd field of view, three of Ben's eyes turned skyward as he saw something fly into view. The creature in question resembled a dragonfly, its wings beating as fast, if not faster, than a hummingbird's.
"Meganeura," Argost said, "A genus of extinct insects from the Late Carboniferous, which resembled and are related to the present-day dragonflies and damselflies. However...I happened upon them. Precious, aren't they?"
"Yeah...if you don't hate bugs." Ben said, as all of his eyes squinted at the giant bug.
The speed of the massive insect was definitely impressive, which it gladly showcased as it dive-bombed towards Ruby. The three eyes that noticed the creature suddenly glowed and began firing blasts of energy at the giant dragonfly.
"Wait, what the hell?!" Ruby yelled, a mix of excitement and genuine shock.
Ben held out his hands and unleashed powerful optic blasts from his hands.
The giant dragonfly-ancestor dodged and wove through the blasts faster than it should be, honestly.
While Ben was trying to blast the bug out of the sky, Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into its sniper mode and took aim. She tracked the creature, aiming to clip its wing...only for something else to take her attention. Argost had closed the distance with a large bound and brought his blade down on Ruby. The stock of the weapon was able to block the strike, before shifting back into its scythe mode.
"Now, perhaps you will provide a more sporting duel, hm?" Argost chuckled.
Ruby spun her scythe around and her eyes lit up. "I'll make your pathetic sword skills look like you were flailing a pool noodle around," Ruby threatened.
"...points for creativity, dear!" Argost said.
The cryptid collector spun his blade, letting the metal heat up before he began his second duel. Balls of flame flew from the blade, forcing Ruby to weave through the attacks as a blur of rose petals.
Ruby hooked her cryptid opponent on Crescent Rose's blade and tugged them in close. She unleashed a powerful burst of slashes and flung him into the air. Argost yelled as Ruby chased after him. She turned into a flurry of rose petals, flew up to catch Argost, and then slammed him against a few buildings. She eventually released Argost, and flung him against one final wall.
Ruby backed off for a moment, ready to fire off Dust rounds and take down this collector if he even moved an inch. However, the red-hooded reaper saw Argost double over, a hand shooting to his face.
"You..." Argost muttered, before devolving into chuckling, "You should be very careful about which possessions you break!" Argost turned around in a rage...and revealed to Ruby that half of his was cracked, almost like porcelain. Ruby's eyes grew as big as plates.
"What the hell?" Ruby muttered. Argost's face began to crack some more, before it split in two. Ruby was greeted with Argost's true face- a yeti.
"You're...you're a YETI!?" the reaper yelled.
"Je pense, donc je suis," Argost said, "And I am just as verbose as any other scholar."
Ben kept firing on the prehistoric dragonfly with his front eyes, while some of his back eyes turned to look at Argost.
"Yetis can talk?!" Ben yelled.
"How very ignorant of you. Normally, we cannot...but we have the capacity to. I taught myself by watching television programs," Argost explained.
"...you had TV. In the Himalayas," Ruby deadpanned.
"The set was a 'generous donation' from some ambitious mountaineers. They have no need for it anymore."
"...I worry about what that means." Ben said, increasing the power of his blasts.
"But, let's not dwell on my fond, fond memories..." Argost leveled his blade once more,"Let's finish up this battle, heroes. I wish to dissect you both and see what differences a human from a parallel world has with one from OUR universe..."
"...doubt you'd find any," Ruby said, before quickly firing off another barrage of Dust bullets. The yeti skillfully dodged each shot, noting the sparks of electricity that jumped from the ground wherever they hit.
"I see. Submission through electrocution is your goal here," Argost said, before he slashed his sword upwards. The upward strike caused a raging column of upward heated wind. Ruby was blown back, as Argost grinned.
The red-hooded huntress stabbed her scythe blade into the ground to stop herself from getting flung back too far. She looked up to see Argost, having closed the distance, about to bring his blade down on the huntress. She responded with a simple move: ramming her head into Argost's gut. The sheer surprise of that move made the yeti stumble back. With the opening there, Ruby morphed Crescent Rose's blade to its energy form, now a vibrant yellow hue with sparks jumping from the blade's tip. She flourished the weapon before swiping at Argost. Even when the fire sword blocked the energy blade, a shock traveled up the metal of the sword and reached the yeti collector, giving him quite a good jolt.
Argost was off his rhythm and Ruby was gonna take full advantage of it. Ruby vanished, and Argost quickly recovered from his stupor and searched the surroundings for her. In a spray of rose petals, she emerged behind her opponent and performed a spinning slash. Ruby blasted her opponent into the air before chasing them down with her Semblance. Ruby then used Crescent Rose's blade to grab the opponent's neck and fired the rifle component of her scythe repeatedly, the rebound from her rounds propelling the two of them higher and higher.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Argost yelled, "STOP THIS!"
"Sorry, but we're not in a position to make deals, but look at it this way," Ruby said, as she fired once more, "People are about to find the real carcass of a yeti."
With a front flip and one final shot from Crescent Rose, Ruby pushed her scythe forward with enough force to cut through the abominable opponent, decapitating Argost in a spray of rose petals.
At the same time, Vengeance and Cinder saw her, her silhouette in the sky, with the perfect background of the moonlight.
"...Ruby?" Vengeance asked.
"That...that's impossible..." Cinder gasped, her eyes wide in fear, "She...she fell. She fell! We both saw her!"
Vengeance immediately shifted forms again, back to the jellyfish alien.
"Then let's make this quick. One time. Where. Is. Evernight." the alien said, as he quickly wrapped Cinder in his tendrils.
"You'll get that info over my dead body," Cinder hissed as her eyes flared with Maiden power. She was about to try and overheat the jellyfish alien's tentacles, but Vengeance was just a bit faster. A powerful current traveled down the tentacles and into Cinder's body. She screamed out in pain and Vengeance just upped the voltage.
Ruby landed on the ground as she heard Cinder's screams ring out. "Woah..." Ruby said, running over to Ben. "Sounds like that Ben's giving Cinder the works."
"Tell me about it..." Ben said, as he fired more optic blasts. The dragonfly was still moving around the place, and Ben was getting pissed. "God! Stay...STILL!" Ben's chest suddenly produced a MASSIVE eye, and fired it.
The Meganeura flew out of the way and thought itself safe, but the eye seemed to extend just a bit past the multi-eyed alien's chest and angled the beam, catching the cryptid in the beam. It screeched out in pain as Ruby and Ben both saw the insect quickly disintegrated, ashes falling to the ground.
"...holy shit," Ruby muttered.
"This dude has some crazy eyes on him..." Ben said, looking down at his hands. Well, one set of eyes was, anyway, "...Crazy Eyes is too on the nose for this dude."
"How about...uh..." Ruby hummed, "I dunno...Eye Guy?"
"Ehhh," Ben made a face, "we'll work on it. I was gonna go for Optenmetrist but that name just sucks when you say it out loud."
"You spent all your name creating ideas on Shocksquatch, huh?" Ruby crossed her arms.
"Hey, it's been a while since I got a new one," Ben defended.
"Fair, I gue-" Ruby began, before being interrupted by a massive flash of light of light and sparks from the front of the bar.
"I'm guessing his fight's about to end," Ruby winced. The recipient definitely deserved it, no question there, but that still looked painful.
There were a few more massive flashes of light, and Cinder's screams got weaker and weaker with each one. Ben and Ruby listened in horror as there was one more flash.
And then something exploded.
"I must admit...I half-expected Cinder to escape here," a familiar voice chimed in. Paradox walked up behind Ben and Ruby, pocket watch in hand. It almost looked like he was timing them.
"...seriously?" Ruby deadpanned.
"It was always a possibility. Unlike the Cinder you know, this one grew more...accommodating, for lack of a better word. She learned to adapt and it made her successful."
"And...this Ben just killed her," Ben said, as someone started to approach them.
"Yes, yes...and this is where we come in," Paradox said.
"...oh. Oh shit," Ruby cursed, eyes widening in realization, "He saw me, didn't he?!"
"Well...you did make quite a show of finishing off a yeti. And you did decide to leap into the air," Paradox explained.
"I thought he would be busy with...you know, fighting Cinder?" Ruby said, nervously tapping her pointer fingers together.
"Fair, but still," Paradox said, as Vengeance finally stepped up.
Vengeance scanned Ruby's body, and then looked over at Paradox. "...oh," he sighed in disappointment.
"Hello, Benjamin," Paradox greeted.
"Really had to show up and give me hope, didn't you, Paradox?" Vengeance sighed.
"A bit of poor timing was to blame for that, I'm afraid. Apologies. Though, in truth I had hoped to meet after your final fight with the...I suppose now former Fall Maiden."
"...what do you want?" Vengeance asked. He looked pissed to say the least.
"We have a situation that threatens the fabric of the multiverse," Paradox explained, "And we believe you can help."
"Pass," Vengeance said, walking off.
"Wait!" Ruby called out before this vengeful Ben could get too far, "Paradox suggested we talk to you because…because you might be the extra firepower we need to deal with this!"
"What? Vilgax, Aggregor, Salem herself?"
"A rogue Celestialsapien," Ben said.
That made Vengeance pause.
"We've fought him three times now. The third was the closest, but," Ben sighed, "Even then we didn't really get that close to winning."
"...was he wearing multiple Omnitrixes?" Vengeance asked.
"Uh, yeah. How'd you…?" Ruby began.
"Because," Vengeance scoffed, "I managed to drive him off on my own."
"Wait…what?" Ben and Ruby asked in stunned unison.
"When was this?" Paradox asked, uncharacteristically caught off guard.
"A few months back," the loner variant of Ben shrugged.
"Can you tell us what happened?" the time-walker inquired, "I'm curious as to how you overcame him by yourself."
"Found him watching me as I was making my way out of Vacuo. Didn't even know he was a Celestialsapien when I first fought him. Was wearing a cloak to hide his identity, but I still managed to see a glimpse of an Omnitrix under there."
"He needed a cloak?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah. Don't ask me why," Vengeance shrugged.
Vengeance's Swampfire looked up at the mysterious shrouded figure that was the Collector. At this point, he hadn't collected many Omnitrixes, but his power was still immense. Vengeance had actually made the first move, firing off a barrage of fireballs at the figure who had been watching him for some time. The Collector dodged out of the way, letting the fireballs race out into the desert horizon.
"Giving you one chance to answer before things get worse for you," Vengeance threatened, "Who are you?"
"Who I am is not important, Tennyson. What is important, however, is that you are…interesting. I needed to observe you myself. Indulge my…curiosities," the Collector explained, " Your spirit is impressive, broken as it is. Most would give up after such a loss, even if this new act of yours is quite borish."
"Borish?" the Methanosian spat back, "Is this some kind of game to you?"
"Of a sort. I am not here for you, Tennyson," the Watch Collector explained, "If I was, I would have appeared much sooner. And it wouldn't have been Cinder to remove Rose from the board. "
Swampfire's eyes lit up with dark determination.
"I see I've struck a nerve. And knowing you, that means we're about to fight," the Celestialsapien sighed in annoyance.
Vengeance slapped down the symbol on his chest, letting spikes grow out from it. Green rays of light moved out from the Omnitrix symbol, running across Vengeance's body. As they went, the green and vine-like body of Swampfire hardened and darkened. As the rays passed, Swampfire's skin began to resemble bark. Blue growths appeared on the body as well, mainly on the arms and the head. Spikes jutted out from the wooden forearms of this strange new form along with a collection of the odd blue growths appearing on the shoulders. Leafless branches jutted out by the shoulders and head, framing the massive blue pod that made up a good portion of this new form's upper mass. Wood framed a portion of the pod where two green eyes appeared on a dark blue, tear-drop shaped silhouette, the bottom of which was separated to form this new form's mouth.
The Celestialsapien rushed towards Vengeance. As much as he didn't want to fight here, he wasn't about to let a cheap gimmick get in his way. Vengeance quickly stuck out his large arms and released a powerful blue flame that sent the Collector flying into the air. Vengeance engulfed their hand in giant blue flame and launched a forceful punch forward, resulting in a giant explosion. The Collector rushed in and JUMPED through the explosion, morphing his hand into a blade. He was ready to try and bisect Vengeance. Vengeance jumped back- his jumps were boosted by ports, on the bottom of his feet. They were similar to the ports on his hands. The explosions weren't as powerful, but they were handy for utility...and maybe some brief counter attacks.
The Collector could only growl in annoyance, his rage culminating in his eyes glowing green. Once the energy had built up, he fired his eye rays at Vengeance. Vengeance propelled himself away from the blast. Vengeance flew through the air, as the Collector chased after him. Vengeance began to disperse seeds throughout the area. Suddenly, a full forest grew around the Collector's point of view. The vines and trees grew out of the rocky canyon walls and up from the scorching sands. Within a matter of seconds, the desert around them was now overpopulated with trees, as if someone had turned back time to see what Vacuo had once been.
"Are you trying to hide?" the Collector taunted, "Do you not believe you can take me?"
"Oh, I know I can," Vengeance unleashed a wave of napalm that scorched the entire forest. The Collector was stuck in the flames and he needed to get out. He quickly took to the skies, escaping the now ablaze forest and looked around for his opponent.
"I was just trying to get you away from everything," Vengeance said, as he shifted forms again. This next one was a brutal one.
The Watch Collector didn't see the form but he saw what it created. A collection of discs shot out of nowhere and surrounded his body.
"SONIC...DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The discs unleashed a powerful burst of soundwaves, leaving the Watch Collector with a massive piercing headache. The attack made his cloak flutter in the wind, exposing two of the Omnitrixes he sported. The soundwaves were piercing his body, almost like they would shake him apart from the inside. And if that happened, two lives would be lost: his own and the one he swore to avenge.
"N-no...no! Not here!" the Watch Collector yelled in defiance, "I...need...to...!"
And then, in a blinding flash, he was gone, leaving behind only his cloak.
"...and that's what happened. Ever since then, I've been hunting down Cinder and tearing apart her power base," Vengeance finished.
"You didn't overpower him...you just overwhelmed him. We're on the right track then. We just need to watch out for his anger," Ruby said.
"But why didn't he come back? Considering how...persistent he seems to be, it doesn't make sense that one loss would scare him away for good," Ben mused in thought.
"Maybe it's cause I'm using an Ultimatrix instead of an Omnitrix," Vengeance turning to walk off, "Either way, keep me out of this. I don't wanna get involved with another war."
"...please," Ruby said. "I'm not trying to force you, just...please. Help us."
"I've got...I've got my own fight here. He left me alone...and I'm glad he did. I still have to deal with the queen witch herself, after all. And he's…just another distraction out of the way," Vengeance said. Though, it was a good thing he was facing away from them. His face betrayed how he actually felt about this.
"...Benjamin Kirby Tennyson." Ruby's voice was firm. "You're just as bad at hiding stuff as I am. We're going. It's not your duty to follow us through the portal. I'm not gonna press you anymore, but..."
Ruby turned around to face him, "It's still your choice to do so."
"God...damn it. Some things stay the same between universes, don't they?" Vengeance asked.
"Universal constants, my boy. More often a blessing than a curse," Paradox answered.
"Paradox. Shut up. You're ruining the moment..."
Paradox opened a portal as Ben and Ruby prepared to walk through it.
"Where to next, Professor?" Ben asked.
"We're going to visit an old ally of mine. He fought against a similar threat about..." Paradox hummed, "Goodness me, I don't recall."
"Can you say WHO he fought?" Ben asked. "Or is that spoilers?"
"Very much so, Benjamin. You catch on quickly," Paradox said.
"Starting to pick up on when you're gonna pull that card."
"Must be losing my touch if I am becoming predictable," the time-walker chuckled.
Ben and Paradox went through the portal, as Ruby followed. She heard footsteps following behind her and smiled.
"...thank you," she said as she walked through the rift.
Vengeance said nothing as he followed her into the next parallel world.
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