We started writing the Ever After arc on Monday! We're almost done writing Episode 1, titled "The Mighty Fall". Like the Fall Out Boy song. In fact, all the chapters are.
2. Alone Together
3. The Kids Aren't Alright
4. Golden
5. Hold Me Like A Grudge
6. So Much (for) Stardust
7. Love From The Other Side
I name a lot of my chapters after song titles- not because I think they sound cool or anything, but because what the songs entail. I'm one of those people who will make an entire AMV in my head listening to a song. ANY song. I have a lot of song recommendations for people too!
So, I'm gonna be real. The schedule is looking at 15-16 more weeks of a mix of fun little episodes and plot progression…I haven't exactly figured out how I'm gonna split it up, but the End of Atlas arc could start in November or December. I know that for sure.
This was a very fun episode to write. Lots of funny jokes here and there- I think I have some alien designs too. I'll post that in the Discord.
Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Kylie was the second to arrive, phasing out of the wall next to Ruby, the latter still a little dazed from her trip. Then came Elm and Marrow, the former pulling off an earthshaking superhero-style landing.
And Weller and Ben walked out from the building, clearly bored from their lackluster descent down.
"Yayyyy." Ben said sarcastically. Marrow looked like a shivering mess as Elm set him down.
"...Ben. Gonna be honest. If I jumped off, what were the chances I'd survive?" Marrow asked.
Ben paused. "Well, Swampfire is pretty durable...what, with the regeneration and everything- so, you'd be fine."
Marrow perked up. "Regeneration?"
"Yeah, he's got super regeneration. Any wound you got? Healed instantly." Ruby said. "Even something like an arm falling off."
Marrow's eyes lit up. "...Ohhhh~"
The last to arrive was Weiss, landing ever so carefully next to Kylie as her bandages retracted from up on the ledge. And the sight she and the others saw...did not fill them with confidence. Marching on, and firing a warning shot at the resort, was what could only be described as a small army of Techadons. But these seemed different. Instead of the silver or gunmetal grey colorscheme they'd seen before, these had all kinds of different shades. Some were blue, others red, a few even camouflage green.
"...oookay. First the Borg, now I get to make a Voltron joke," Weller mused to himself.
"We got some varied opponents." Ben said. "Good thing we got a good mix of aliens here."
"And your MANY semblances." Ruby added.
"Yeah." Ben said, holding out a hand. A glyph formed in front of him, and he imagined projectiles launching out of it-
But nothing happened. Weiss slapped her forehead. "You need Dust for that, Ben..."
"...ah." Ben said, making a face.
"Mine doesn't," Marrow smirked as he decided to kick things off. Fireballs began to form in his hands and he took aim at some of the warbots. The flames crashed into their targets, staggering some and...doing nothing against the red ones.
"How much you wanna bet reds' are fireproof?" Elm asked as her arms unraveled into tentacles.
"So if red's fire, what's green?" Ruby asked back, looking to see which one of the mechs she should hack. Well, if they even could be taken over by a Mechamorph.
"Well... I'm gonna... guess laser proof?" Ben shook his head. "You have laser eyes, Elm. Blast them to hell."
"...do I?" Elm reacted with astonishment. "Ooooohhh, that's nice." Elm's eyes shone brightly as she proceeded to raze the battlefield. Elm laughed. "Oooooh, I may wanna keep this, Ben!"
"...please don't."
Surprisingly though, the lasers actually managed to cut through the green ones. Laser proof, they were not. Ruby singled out one of the blue machines and raced towards it. Some of the reds had their hands retract and replaced with weapons. The bots opened fire, literally, forcing Ruby to dodge streams of fire.
"Yep! Saw THAT coming!" Ruby called out as she reached the blue one. It quickly changed out its hand for a weapon, but before it could fire, the red Mechamorph quickly turned to a slime form and attached herself to the machine.
"All right, so the green ones... If they aren't laser proof, what the heck are they?!" Ben screaming.
Marrow tightened his hand and felt something develop in it. When he opened his hand, he discovered some seeds. Where they came from? A mystery. Marrow raised an eyebrow, but he knew he had to toss them into the battlefield. Marrow flung the seeds onto the field, and vines instantaneously sprouted from the ground, entangling several of the robots.
"...heck yeah!" Marrow screamed, his hands in the air.
While the red and blue machines were more than subdued, the green ones had no trouble freeing themselves. When their hands retracted, instead of a flamethrower or lase cannon, a chainsaw shot out, immediately revving up. The bots began to cut away at their plant bindings without much issue.
"Oh that's not fair!"
"Hey, you can just burn them away." Ben shrugged.
"...fair." Marrow said, focusing some muscles (?) in his hands to form a fireball. "Okay...so, do I like. Throw it like a normal ball?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Ben shrugged.
With that, Marrow began hurling fireballs at as many of the machines in range as he could. Kylie, meanwhile, began to phase through some of the machines, messing up their internal circuitry each time. Crossing wires there, removing motherboards there, just making it a nightmare for whatever engineer that would even try to fix these things. Weiss was having a bit of a harder time with her form. She tried doing what Ben had suggested, layering the bandages as she wrapped up one of the Techadons to resemble Snare-oh's inspiration, only for the robot to push back twice as hard.
"I'm starting to regret choosing this one!" Weiss yelled, as she began to get pulled back.
"No one said you HAD to stay that alien!" Ben yelled, as he dodged some attacks. "STAY! You can change aliens!"
Weiss looked down at her Omnitrix symbol, and groaned. "I hope whatever I get next is useful..."
The Omnitrix must have been listening. After Weiss slammed down the dial, she felt herself bulk up. Her muscles became denser as she started to feel like she could actually match Elm or Yang in a brawl. White fur began to cover her body as she gained some feline features and sharp spikes grew from her wrists. If a robot could look worried, this Techadon surely would right about now.
"LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING-!"
"...oh my god." Ben said, as Ben only saw CARNAGE. Weiss, who, YES, was currently in the form of Rath, was tearing the Techadons apart like there was no tomorrow.
"...what the hell?" Kylie said, floating next to Ben.
"She...she's just working through some anger issues." Ben said.
One of the Techadons let out a sound that resembled the scream of R2-D2 as Weiss grabbed it by the ankles and spun it around, using it as a club to beat some of its comrades with.
Marrow paused from throwing fireballs for a brief moment to see the spectacle as well.
"...holy shit," was all the Ace-Op managed to say at the violent display.
"...I know how Blake feels when she sees Yang do something really, really physical now." Kylie said, face flushed with blush.
Ruby, meanwhile, had taken over a Techadon, and was wrecking all the Techadon to assimilate into her own body- to create a mega Techadon, the one true powerhouse. She'd destroy it after she was done using it, but for now-
"I AM A GOD OF DESTRUCTION!" Ruby yelled, chainsawing her way through the army.
"...well that's just slightly terrifying isn't it?" Weller asked as he was working on one of the severed Techadon arms. If he could just find the firing- aha! There it is! A few quick rearranged wires and a makeshift trigger, it was ready.
"Now, the Semblances are all well and good but I have the feeling you'll need something with a bit more kick to...hello?" Weller said, trying to get Ben's attention.
"U-uh yes! Semblances, great! But I need...?" Ben said, quickly coming to after realizing he might have been in the same boat as Kylie right now, just watching Ruby wreck the warbots.
"A weapon?" Weller inquired.
"Yeah...don't have anything to go off on." Ben smirked. "I'm a bit of a sitting duck here..."
"Exactly. Which is why you now have this," Weller proudly said as he handed Ben the severed arm of a Techadon, "A few repaired wires, adding a fire mechanism, and bam! Improvised heavy weapon!"
"...Doctor Weller. Your credentials went to good work." Ben grinned. "But, uh...it won't take me over, right?"
"Of course not! One, you'd actually have to wear the damn thing and two, the first thing I did was turn that little back-up off. It's perfectly safe to use for unsafe purposes! Now then, my friend, as you all are so fond of saying: give 'em hell!"
"That sounds perfectly okay me, then." Ben remarked as he grabbed the arm and rushed away- having these superpowers in a human form was still so foreign to him. Is this what being Superman was like?
Ben smashed his way through the robots, zipping and shattering everything in his path. Ben paused to aim and fire the canon function- a glyph formed in front of him, as he began to fire. A multitude of shots rained out across the battlefield.
Several Techadons were cut down from the barrage, pieces being scattered across the ground. One shot managed to pierce the visor of one warbot, cracking it and sending it tumbling back to the ground.
The feed cut there as the Weapon Master sighed, more in annoyance than anything. He checked a wristpad that showed how many units were still active on the battlefield and decided that was enough. As long as they kept the others distracted, he could claim that wretched Galvan device.
"It seems I will have to deal with this issue myself." The Inspector hummed. "I will have to bring out Durendal."
The Inspector pressed a few buttons on his chair...and off he went.
Back with the others, Marrow had decided to try and mix things up. He slammed down on the dial of his Omnitrix and was engulfed in a flash of dark blue light. He still had his usual uniform on, but now he seemed much shorter and more...frog-like might be the most apt description as he was now his own version of Upchuck.
"...oh my god." Ben whispered.
"...Ben, what is THAT?" Weiss asked.
"Weiss, I'm gonna tell you to look away now-"
"...uh...ok, Ben...you're not helping right now! What does this guy do?" Marrow asked, his voice now a little deeper, but still tinged with concern.
"...uh. You eat stuff." Ben said.
"...excuse me!?" Marrow yelled.
"You have these long tongues...that can eat stuff with ease..." Ben frowned.
"...and that's it?!"
"Well...no...uh...when you eat stuff...it...can be used as ammo..." Ben rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly.
"...we never speak of this again. Got it?"
"Right." Ben nodded. "My lips are gonna be forever sealed about this."
"Take this to your fucking grave." Marrow warned.
"Promise!" Ben called out before he sped past another hit from a Techadon. Marrow looked to the nearest warbot mech and shivered. This was...gonna be weird. He opened his mouth to let several long, frog-like tongues emerge and wrap around a chunk of the warbot's severed torso. The piece was then pulled back into Marrow's mouth and he swallowed.
"...and I thought Goop was the grossest alien in this thing," Marrow groaned.
Weiss shuddered. "I should have heeded the warning..."
"Would you believe me if I said Upchuck could hold a star in his body?" Ben asked.
"You call this thing WHAT!?" Weiss yelled.
"Look, remember how old I was when I named most of these! Not all of them were winners! Some of them were less cool and more 'the name just fits with the powers!'" Ben called back as he blasted another Techadon with the makeshift cannon. Good thing he had Elm's Aura Roots to deal with the shattering recoil of this thing.
Marrow saw another Techadon about to fire on him and he panicked, trying to figure out how to fire with this form. Though...in truth he knew he was just hoping there was an alternative.
"...Marrow." Ben said.
"No." Marrow groaned.
"...please God no..." Marrow turned pale.
"You're gonna need to spit it up..." Ben cringed.
"...I feel like I need to repeat myself. Not. A fucking. Word when we get back," Marrow growled. The more he learned about this alien, the more he hated it. But...this was the only to fire so...he did, letting a blue blast of energy fly from his mouth and slam into the Techadon's chest. The explosion did damage, but not enough to destroy it, only to knock it over for a time.
"...so what do you hate more, how effective the blast was, or like, the acid reflux on the way up-" Ben said.
"I'm changing back into Swampfire." Marrow said, hitting the Omnitrix symbol.
While not Swampfire, Marrow did change into a much more fitting alien for the fight. Blue fur covered his body, accompanied by the a tail growing from behind. His newly gained snout split into four and soon, replacing Upchuck was Blitzwolfer.
"...not who I wanted, but way better than the last guy!" Marrow growled before leaping at the nearest warbot.
Ben gave a sigh of relief, before he returned to firing his weapon. This thing didn't need an ammo reload, but it did have a brief cooldown window. Occasionally he'd zip around and smash into a robot and blast it, but he was essentially just the gunner in this situation.
Ruby, meanwhile, was just tearing through any Techaon that came close to her. Kylie, at the same time, decided to change things up. She slammed down on the Omnitrix dial and went through an odd transformation. Her body became multi-colored and segmented, but more like blocks placed together than something more organic. After the flash died down, Ghostfreak had been replaced by Bloxx.
"...Huh. Not what I was expecting," Kylie said, feeling her plastic curly hair. "Well, no matter." Kylie held out her arms, and imagined them to be two "lobbers". Her hands instantly morphed into the lobbers, and she began firing fast, piercing bricks of "Legos" across the field.
While not exactly damaging to the warbots, the constant barrage of Lego bricks did slow them down long enough for others to take advantage of the opening. Marrow leapt in from the side and bit one of the machines in the neck. Ruby slashed through two more stunned machines with an energy chainsaw(something she added to the Techadon she was possessing because she thought it'd be cool) and Elm, who had this point had swapped from Sea Strike into Armodrillo, punched one of the machines through the chest with her piston-like arm.
"Now THIS is an alien I can get used to." Elm said, bashing her fists into the Earth and shaking it. Cracks began to open up and the Techadons fell through them, swallowed up by the Earth.
Ruby, meanwhile, staggered forward a bit. Some of the warbots got a few lucky hits in. They didn't hurt her too much, doing more damage to their former comrade at this point. More shots rang out before Ruby could make a proper defense, so she abandoned the machine to be betrayed and cut down. She moved behind two of the machines and thrust two diamond-like spikes through their chests after changing in a flash of red to Diamondhead.
Ruby sliced upwards and thrusted her way through her opponents. She then preformed a series of sharp, vertical strikes- it was like she was a living Crescent Rose. She was LOVING this alien, honestly. Ruby threw out some crystals with expert precision, headshotting a few more Techadons. Ruby ended her combo by slamming her hands into the ground, and having a multitude of large crystals shoot up and spear a few more Techadons.
"...wow." Ben said, blushing. He then turned to Kylie. "She gets that from me."
"Yes, yes. You two are adorable. Focus on blasting." Kylie said, rolling her eyes.
Ruby actually decided to go a little bit further on that "living Crescent Rose" comparison. Instead of normal blades, Ruby fashioned the crystals into ones that resembled scythes, cutting through the Techadons with ease. But then her blades slammed against a shield, the kind that no Techadon actually possessed.
"Uh oh," Ruby muttered.
"You will find my chair to be quite a deadly weapon." The Inspector said, sitting up his throne. It looked futuristic, not of this world- hell, maybe not even of this time period.
Before Ruby could even think about trying another attack, something to try and break through the barrier, it pulsed and let out a shockwave that sent her flying. Diamond clanged against metal as Ruby just bounced off of Elm's back as she was fighting another warbot.
"Oh shit!" Elm called out, turning to see Ruby over her shoulder.
"What the hell is that!?" Doctor Weller yelled. "Because I want one!"
"That's a Techadon Weapons Chair. They can control an entire army from there or something." Ben said, having seen a few on the black market in Undertown- and by God, were they a pretty penny. "They can block everything."
"Everything!?" Marrow yelled.
"...well, not EXACTLY everything."
"Ok, what's the exception?!" Elm yelled, grabbing a Techadon by the arm and punching the limb in half. Ruby quickly shook herself out of the daze of slamming into Elm's armored form and looked back at the Weapon Master. The sides of the chair opened up, exposing all manner of weapons.
"...why do the alien bad guys always get the cool weapons? Universe wants to torment me with that, I swear," Ruby grumbled to herself.
"Applying a LOT of pressure to the shielding. That'll cause the shielding to shatter." Ben said.
"Pressure?" Ruby said. "Alright. Shouldn't be too hard then. We got some hard hitters..."
"Not hard enough..."
"Elm's got a Murrian, a walking earthquake maker, and I'm pretty sure she has Humongosaur in there too-"
"I have what?" Elm interrupted, intrigued and a little excited.
"Big dinosaur guy. Anyway, how hard do we need to hit it?" Ruby asked.
"...hard enough to reach over a billion pounds of force," Ben explained.
"...gonna have to hit it REALLY hard, then." Weller said.
"...ooooor." Kylie said, reverting back and pointing to her Omnitrix. "We distract him and then I can swoop in for the kill..."
"What are you thinking?" Weiss asked, slamming two Techadons together by the head and crushing them like tin cans before racing over to Kylie. She looked down at Kylie's Omnitrix and smiled when she saw the icon on display.
"Lemme tell you something, Kylie! I love it when you make a plan that comes together!"
"Thank you, giant angry fluffy Weiss!" Kylie said, giving an enthusiastic thumbs up.
"Just keep the pressure on him. We'll give you a sign when we're ready, Kylie!" Ben said, as he and the others dashed off.
"While the numbers are in your favor," the Weapon Master said from his throne, "they will not give you the advantage. Numbers can be overcome, simply, with overwhelming firepower." With a few button presses, the chair's various weapons opened fire. Everything came at the group as they rushed the inspector, from laser blasts to anti-gravity bombs and missiles to arcs of electricity.
Ben had a hard time avoiding them- and so did everyone else. The beams burned their bodies, and the arcs of electricity were tearing up the land, and not giving them much advantage. Thank God Ben had his aura, but it could only take so much...
Each hit Ben took caused a shimmer of green Aura to flicker across his body. It was...weird feeling it in full, if he had to be honest. Elm was just shrugging off of the most hits due to her armored body. Since the chair was floating, her pistons wouldn't do much here, but her armored body would be the perfect shield. With Marrow still as Blitzwolfer, he hopped up on Elm's shoulder and, despite the pain in her ears, the canine Faunus Ace-Op let out sonic howls that blasted away any missiles that made their way towards the pair.
Ruby quickly shifted to her own Wildvine form and began to throw out some seeds to catch the missiles and guard the others from the barrage of other attacks. Weiss, however...caught some of the missiles and threw them back.
"LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING, TECHADON INSPECTOR 13!" Weiss yelled. "YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT WEISS SCHNEE, HEIRESS TO THE SCHNEE DUST COMPANY, IN THE BODY OF A VERY, VERY TICKED OFF APPOPLEXIAN!?"
The Inspector stared.
"YOU GET A MISSILE!" Weiss threw the missile back, and it simply exploded against the Inspector's shield.
"...was that supposed to do anything? Asides annoy?" the inspector drawled.
"YEAH! KEEP YOU FROM NOTICING THAT!" Weiss yelled as Marrow and Elm reached the inspector's chair. Elm slammed her fists into the shield, hoping to try and make enough noise to distract the Weapon Master. And just to give him even MORE of a migraine, Marrow split his jaw apart and howled at the alien.
"Annoying." The Inspector said, as he pushed a button- the shield around his area turned red, and it emitted a pulse that knocked everyone back. "I am invincible within this chair. Laying a finger on me is impossible."
"Really, now?" Ben grinned.
"If you are referring to...shoddily crafted weapon, taken from a superior whole, know that will cause just as minimal effect as your little charge did."
"Shoddy?! I'd like to see you do better in the field, under fire, and with limited tools!" Weller called out, absolutely offended. He thought it was rather well done given the circumstances.
"Nah...I was referring to the fact that you forgot to count how many of us came at you," Ben smirked.
The Inspector paused- now that the Terran mentioned it, their numbers were smaller than before. Who was missing-
The Inspector suddenly saw something above his shield- a Merlinisapien, female. Kylie grinned, as she waved at the Inspector.
"Forgot to scan the area now, did we?" Kylie asked, as she slammed her Omnitrix symbol down...
While fear wasn't usually an emotion that Inspector 13 felt, in this one occasion, he allowed himself to feel it. In a flash of light, the form of the Merlinisapien grew to massive proportions, taking on a more traditional humanoid shape. Massive fins emerged from the back of her arms as another sprouted from the top of her head. Shoulder spikes soon appeared on her body, along with two tube, almost vent-like cylinders pointing down from the sides of her chin. It was...definitely a little disorienting at first to see in front of you and below you at the same time.
"So, how much pressure could this thing hold again?" Kylie asked, as she pressed her foot down on the shield.
"About...1,314,000,000 pounds of force." Ben yelled. But Kylie couldn't hear him. Of course, she knew how much force one foot of Way Big would give off- 2,000,000,000.
(She knew that because she had a question for writing.)
This was when panic started to set in for the Weapon Master. His face barely betrayed the emotion, but it was there. He was about to try and fire on the To'kustar, maybe distract her, force her off the shield...but then he heard it crack. The shield itself was breaking under the kaiju-sized alien's...attack wasn't even the right word for this; it was far too casual.
But, he needed to stay focused. The Inspector needed to launch a concentrated attack on Ben, the original Omnitrix user. If he could do that, and retreat with him back to his ship…yes, that would do nicely.
The inspector pressed a few buttons on his chair, as a powerful star like projectile appeared in front of his chair…
He fired it at just the perfect moment for it to race past the To'kustar...and right as his shield shattered from the force exerted on it. Most of the others managed to dodge out of the way of the projectile, but that was fine. None of them were the target the inspector was aiming for. Ben soon the spinning projectile at the last minute, and it slammed into him. The hit knocked him off his feet and shattered his Aura in a bright green flicker.
Ben yelled, as he fell to the ground, twitching ever so slightly. "Ben!" Ruby yelled, before her Omnitrix started beeping-
Actually...all of their Omnitrixes started to beep, strangely enough...
"Please tell me that's not a self-destruct," Marrow groaned.
"LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING, MARROW! I DON'T THINK IT IS!" Weiss yelled back, looking down at her beeping Omnitrix symbol.
"...uh oh." Kylie said, as she tried pressing down a bit harder- if she was running out of batteries, she might as well make her last move count!
With the shield gone, the chair itself was starting to take damage. Suffice to say, a To'kustar stepping on it was going to wreck it completely.
"Activating axliary shields..." The Inspector said, adding up another powerful shield that nearly sent Kylie backward as it activated.
"Oh, come on!" Kylie yelled, as she detransformed.
And then they all changed back. Ruby's crystal form shattered back to her normal self; Elm's armor receded and Marrow's fur vanished. Weiss' body lost the muscle and fur of an Apploexian...though she still felt oddly compelled to refer to herself in third person. Probably just a quirky side-effect.
"...what just happened?" Ruby asked.
"Well, from the looks of things..." Elm said, looking at her wrist. "We just got our Omnitrix privileges revoked."
"Fascinating...but I didn't do-" Weller began before he turned to look at the recovering Ben, "Wait a moment. Ruby! Your Semblance! Use it!"
"Uh...alright?" Ruby suddenly sped over to Ben, much to her shock. "Woah! Our powers are back!"
"Ohhhh I think he just fucked up," Marrow smirked and turned to the Inspector. Before he remembered he didn't have his weapon on hand due to the Omnitrix powers.
"...oooooor I did."
"Hey Ben? You good over there?" Elm asked.
"Yeah...give me a minute..." Ben groaned.
"Mind if I borrow your gun?"
"Sure...just. Give me a few minutes for the ringing in my ears to stop..." Ben rubbed his head. "Give them hell."
"Thank you." Elm said, taking the arm.
She easily hefted it and smirked. It had some heft to it, but not as heavy as Timber. Kind of interesting really. Elm formed Aura roots that kept her firmly planted in place before she took aim at the Weapon Master.
"Gonna bet that shield of yours isn't as strong as the first," the Ace-Op smirked before she opened fire.
"Observant. But still...I have enough power, a nigh infinite disposal of weapons, and more Techadons on the way. Surely, you cannot respond to all of that with one puny blaster..." The Inspector said.
"Eh, maybe...but I'm not only the one hitting you. Remember...we swapped powers."
That...confused the inspector. What kind of threat was that? It was only after a rather large shadow loomed over the Weapon Master that the threat connected.
The looming shadow of a knight dreaded over the Inspector, giant sword in hand. "And...we've got better control of them. Better than Ben did with ours..."
"...ah," was all Inspector 13 could muster. Elm smirked and opened fire with a barrage of shots, while the knight gripped the blade tightly and began slashing at the barrier. The Weapon Master checked the shield's integrity to find that it was depleting faster than the main barrier was recharging. One of the sword strikes from the knight cracked the barrier, much to his chagrin. Maybe the generators were damaged; he built this barrier better than that.
Marrow, Kylie and Ruby shared a look- crap, how do THEY help out in this?
"...we could run and get our weapons back..." Kylie said.
"But they're on the top floor! We'd never reach it in time." Marrow said.
Ben stood back up, and dusted himself off. "I'll grab them. Just need to get a fast guy..." Ben activated the Omnitrix, and scrolled to look for a speedster.
Almost like the Omnitrix listened, the first option he was shown was...an alien he hadn't used before. It looked oddly familiar though, with a humanoid shape but with almost manta ray like features. Why not try a new one? He slammed down the dial and began to change.
Yellow horns first grew from the nose and extended up the middle of his face, curving up past his head. His arms thinned and elongated, ending in three, boney fingers as yellow patagia appeared at his wrists and ran the length of his arms. A pair gills appeared on the sides of his body and somewhat short tail appeared and curved out a bit. Ben opened his eyes to reveal glowing green, energy gathering up in them.
"...what is that?" Marrow asked.
"Dunno...first time I've used him," Ben said, his voice now a bit raspier, but not quite as bad as when he's Ghostfreak.
"Albedo has one of those, right? And so did Kirby..." Ruby said. "I think he called it Slipstream..."
"Lame name...but, gives me an idea of how fast he is." Ben said, looking at his wings.
"Weiss would kind-" Weiss paused and cleared her throat, "I would kindly suggest going now, Ben!"
"On it!" Ben quickly stretched his arms out, before taking off. And while Slipstream might not have been the best name, it definitely fit the speed it could achieve. Ben's arsenal always had mostly ground-based speedsters and many of his fliers were fast, but not like XLR8 if he could fly.
Ben sped up the way, arriving at the top of the building in just a few seconds. Ben blinked a few times.
"Woah. That was...fast." Ben said. "I kinda like it!"
He smirked and quickly rounded up the weapons he could find for them all and flew back to the battle. Honestly, it felt like a few minutes, but in reality it was just a few seconds.
"...dude, that was like, 30 seconds!" Marrow yelled. "Damn, this guy is fast!"
"Shame I didn't find out about him earlier..." Ben said. "Would've been handy to have."
"Hmmm...fast as a jet..." Ruby muttered to herself as she happily took hold of Crescent Rose. She was starting to get a better idea for a name for this guy.
Kylie grabbed her pistol. "So...how hard do you think you smash into that barrier? I bet I can snipe the chair and maybe cause it to malfunction..." Kylie reloaded her weapon.
"Could probably keep him still long enough for you to get a clean shot in, too," Marrow said as he loaded a fresh clip into Fetch.
"...ya know...I think I can hit it pretty hard. Cause it feels like this guy can do more than fly fast," Ben smirked as he felt energy gather up in his eyes.
"Really?" Marrow said. "Like wh-"
And before Marrow could finish his sentence, a massive burst of energy blasted out of Ben's eyes, hitting the shield and causing the Inspector to flinch.
"...like that." Ben said.
"Laser eyes, super flight, anything else you wanna throw out?" Marrow joked. Ben, in response, took the skies and fired another blast at the inspector, adding in a third beam from his tail.
"...okay, Jesus." Kylie said. "And Kirby seriously thought 'Slipstream' was a good name for him?"
"Yeah...he's more like a...Mantaray laser guy..." Marrow said. "Oooh! How about Mantalaser!"
"Mantalaser? Ehhhh, I think we're getting closer," Ben said, keeping the lasers up on the inspector. The three beams burst through the shield and shattered, with the inspector flinching as the beams stung him in the chest. It was less of a scorching laser and more of a shocking one; his nerves felt like they were being electrocuted then and there.
"Ooooh, not exactly what was I expecting. Paralyzing lasers..." Ben muttered.
"I think that just sealed the name idea for me," Ruby smirked.
Kylie and Ruby aimed their guns at the chair, and began riddling it with holes. Ben added some extra laser fire, his tail going off like a machine gun.
"STAY!" Marrow yelled, making sure that the Weapon Master couldn't react or reactivate the shield. Bullets and laser riddled the chair, breaking its weapons and denting the armor. The more damage it took, the less likely it seemed the Inspector would be able to make a clean getaway. At this point, he probably needed to settle for just getting offworld a free man.
"Transporter- beam me back to the ship." The Inspector said, trying to remain calm. "Right now!"
A few beams of light started to appear around the Inspector, but Ben's eyes glinted. "You're not getting away THAT easy!" Ben yelled, as he swooped in to grab the weapon master.
Ben was actually caught in the beams right as the Weapon Master and his chair teleported back to the ship. The inside of the Techadon vessel was very...clean, yet ominous. Dull grey metal made up the entirety of the vessel with red lights visible along the floor and walls, and every so often they pulsed with energy. The lights appeared again in the massive control room of the ship, an array of consoles and screens, depositing both Ben and Inspector 13 in front of them. The latter's chair spun a little bit from the former diving at him.
"Welcome, Terran. This will be the final spot your eyes will gaze upon." According to the Inspector.
"Great place." Ben stated as he took a glance around. "...hey, quick question."
"You will not be addressed." The Inspector was scowling- he clearly had enough of Ben and any other Omnitrix user today.
"No, seriously. One big question." Ben begged. "...is this place laser proof?" Ben proceeded to demolish the area with his neuroblasts and soar about the room, sonic booms inflicting even MORE damage to the surrounds before the Inspector could intervene. The Inspector was overwhelmed and quickly discovered his control panel to be beyond repair.
Explosions started to sound throughout the ship, even in the onboard Techadon assembly line. The systems that Ben damaged caused a chain reaction and Inspector 13 was forced to watch some of his most profitable products go up in literal flames. Anger briefly flashed on his face and he quickly pulled out one last weapon, what looked like a small grey remote. To hell with examining the whole Omnitrix, he could examine the debris.
Ben immediately zipped on over, and grabbed the weapon. "Thanks for that. What's it do?" Ben grinned.
"That is a Techadon Dissipator, far too complex for you to understa-"
And Ben immediately pressed its trigger, firing a massive red energy beam into and through the roof...and probably a good way into the sky as well.
"Oh, good. There's our exit." Ben said, grabbing the Techadon Master. "Come on! You're getting some time for this."
The Weapon Master tried one last futile effort to actually take a swing at Ben, only to get blasted into a wall. Ben grabbed the weaponsmith by the collar of his suit and flew through the massive hole he made while the ship fell apart around them.
Ben and the Inspector burst out of the ship, which was collapsing from the inside out. "Millenia of info was on that ship..." The Inspector said quietly.
"Yeah? Well, that sucks." Ben said, as he darted back to the hotel.
The weaponsmith was dropped in front of Marrow and Elm, the two quickly bringing him to his feet and restraining.
"You know, I think I know what to call him now," Ruby smirked as Ben landed in front of them all.
"Third time's the charm. Let's hear it," Ben said eagerly.
"Jetray."
"Huh...I like it."
"...ok, yeah, Jetray's way better than Mantalaser," Marrow admitted.
"Rolls off the tongue, too." Weller said, walking forward.
"You all realize you have just declared war on the Weapon Masters, correct?" The Inspector said, smugly.
"...eh?"
"My ship sends out a signal in case its destroyed. Unless you can find a way to dispose of it before they can trace the signal back to this backwater planet..." The Inspector grinned. "Armageddon is inbound."
Marrow smirked a little. Time for just the smallest hint of payback...and mutual assured destruction.
"Hey Ben? Why not use the little guy?" the Faunus Ace-Op asked slyly.
"...no..." Weiss said, putting her hand to her mouth.
"Ben, seriously- DON'T." Ruby warned.
"...I mean..." Ben looked back at the ship. "We barely beat that chair...and a whole army of Techadons? No thanks."
"...Marrow, I know what you're doing. It's...smart but also kind of a dick move," Elm admitted.
"I know. Mutually assured destruction. If he tells anyone, I have ammo to fire back," Marrow shrugged, "Lose-lose situation but, not going down without a fight."
"...fine. We both take this to our graves. Not the first time I've had to eat some weird stuff..." Ben said, slapping down the Omnitix and morphing into Upchuck. "...plus, it'll bruise this man's ego."
"...wait what? Not the first time? The hell are you talk-?!" But Ben already was already off devouring the ruins of the inspector's ship. Each bit of debris eaten felt like another chip was taken out of Inspector 13's pride.
The usually stoic Inspector 13 now had a look of disbelief, bewilderment...and utter shock, painted all across his face. Ben walked back over, spitting out a random piece of the ship.
"Ugh...tasted like sulfur." Ben gagged.
When the group returned to Atlas, the last thing Ironwood was expecting was a call for a new prisoner for the Plumbers, especially one of the biggest weapons' dealers and manufacturers in the market. He had some of his elite men take the inspector away for proper processing.
And while Inspector 13 was getting a new cell arranged for him, Ruby and the others were...maybe somewhat bragging to their teammates about the power switch.
"I'm sorry...Weiss...got Rath?" Blake asked.
"Yes and it was just as amazing as it sounds! Should've had a camera," Ruby chuckled.
"I WISH I went on this retreat! I could've kicked ass as an alien!" Yang grinned. "God, imagine me as Heatblast..."
"So, wait. If you got their powers..." Rex said. "If WE got hit by that beam or whatever, would you get MY nanites?"
Ben gave a halfhearted shrug. "Dunno, honestly."
"So did anyone get any...oddballs?" Kevin asked, "I mean for the most part it sounds like you guys didn't have that much issue with them."
"I was turned into a loudmouth tiger and a mummy...and yet those don't count as odd ones do they..." Weiss mused, "I could mention how Ben decided to phrase how I should get used to XLR8's 'wheels.'"
"Nope! We are burying that one!" Ben quickly interjected.
"...see all you've done is made us more curious," Min chimed in.
"What about you, Marrow?" Ceres asked. "You get any oddballs?"
Ben and Marrow shared a look.
"...nope." Marrow said, shaking his head. "I got some good ones, like this wolf guy, goo guy...uhh, that swamp guy..."
"Blitzwolfer, Goop and Swampfire. Huh, pretty good line-up. Wonder who your other two were though..."
"We may never know," Marrow chuckled, hoping that was a good enough deflection.
"You know, I ordered you two to take some time off," came the voice of Clover as he walked up to the group, Scroll in hand and checking some Grimm reports, "But the universe decided there's no rest for the weary, huh?"
"You have...no idea how true that is here."
"At least the REST of the break was okay." Kylie said. "Sure, we spent it all lying around and tired, but hey, we had that fun part in the middle!"
"Hell, we even got to test out our own Omnitrix!" Elm added.
"...I thought there was only one?" Clover asked, raising a brow in interest.
"You can thank the newest Plumber prisoner for that. Ruby got to take over one of those damned Techadons, I got all kinds of bruisers, Marrow ended up turning into fro-" Elm clasped her hands over her mouth. SHIT.
"...what did Marrow turn into?" Clover asked, raising an eyebrow. Marrow turned pale, Kylie looked away, and Ben just simply pulled out his phone.
"Guys, seriously. You can be honest..." Blake said. "We're all friends here..."
"...is...that an order...sir?" Elm asked sheepishly.
"...I know you're joking...but if I abuse my power just this once," Clover joked.
"...Marrow turned into a frog guy...with a tongue-" Elm began.
"And he turned into one of the aliens I never turned into- I call him Bullfrag- he's kinda weird since Ceres fought against him..." Ben blurted out.
"...how long has it even been since you used Bullfrag?" Ceres mused.
"I dunno- since I was like, 13?" Ben shrugged. "I just remember Max yelling me because he thought I was an Incursean..."
"Ok...that part's true," came the voice of Harriet, "but kid? I've gotten pretty good at figuring out lies. Marrow didn't turn into 'Bullfrag,' which is a terrible name by the way."
"Oh my god, I was 13! Everyone seems to forget that!" Ben groaned.
"So...what did he actually turn into, Elm?"
"...no, that's what he turned into, seriously." Elm said. "A frog with tongues."
"...tongues?" Harriet repeated.
"Ohhhhh fuck," Marrow hissed.
"Wait a minute...frog with tongue-...noooo. You didn't actually-" Ceres began, immediately knowing the species just from that. When you watch a race eat their whole planet as an evacuation plan...you kinda have their description burned in your memory for better or worse.
"...you know what? Marrow, let's go...back to the resort." Ben said. "To avoid alllllllll of this. Sound good?"
"...yes. Yes, actually. Yes it does." Marrow said, standing up.
"Come on, out with it. I don't know aliens like you do," Harriet crossed her arms.
"Aaaaare you sure you wanna know? Some things can't just...be forgotten. This is one of them," Ceres warned.
Harriet scoffed. "Please, kid. I've seen worse. How bad can it-"
"It's bad." Ben, Ruby, Elm, Kylie and Marrow said, all in unison.
"...screw it. Taking the risk. Whisper it if it's so bad."
"...he ate stuff-" Elm whispered.
"ELM!" Marrow yelled, very much betrayed. Ben groaned...well, on the bright side...it wasn't him.
"...that's it?" Harriet asked.
"Yes and no..." Ceres said before motioning Harriet closer. The Ace-Op rolled her eyes and walked over, leaning over so that Ceres could whisper the whole explanation.
"...Marrow. What the fuck."
Marrow shrank back into his seat, and curled up in a ball. Ben could only pet his back, and "there there" him. Marrow just swatted his hand away.
"...think Ironwood is enjoying his break there?" Ben asked, changing the subject.
"Honestly, he needs it," Elm said, hoping that Marrow didn't take this personally. It just slipped out; she didn't even mean to say it.