Trixie had asked herself many times: how did they always attract the crazies everywhere they go?
Take this nutcase for example.
The Tennysons had been driving through a random no-name town in the middle of Idaho – because nothing ever happened in Idaho. They had been out shopping supplies for the next week when someone in a ridiculous costume made to look like a sentient cup handed Ben a flier. It was a promotion for the opening of a new business that exclusively sold rather…exotic smoothies. Given the menu options, it was unlikely the franchise would ever take off, but Max suggested they visit for the experience.
Now Trixie was wishing they didn't.
The very second, they set foot in the Mr. Smoothie parking lot, they were suddenly attacked from an enemy that literally appeared out of nowhere. They took out Gwen and Max first – immobilizing both of them with a purple ray that literally froze them in place. they tried to shoot Trixie next, but Ben's quick reaction time gave him a chance to transform into Fasttrack and move them both out of the way at the last second. They zipped across to the other side of the parking lot when the attacker's form shimmered into existence, staring them down with glowing purple hands.
He certainly appeared humanoid, but it was impossible to tell underneath his black helmet with its purple visor that obscured his face. They had a penchant for black with the all-dark body suit and trench coat, though the glowing purple gauntlets were a nice touch to the aesthetic. (Based on RAT appearance, because I can't take OV seriously.)
The mysterious attacked pointed his fist at the pair and started shooting them with purple lasers. Fasttrack snatched up Trixie and carried her in a loop around the parking lot, narrowly dodging the strangers extraordinarily accurate marksmanship.
"Seriously, what's your beef, man?" said Fasttrack as he and Trixie took shelter behind an upturned table. "We just wanted some smoothies."
"Surrender the girl at once, Ben Tennyson!" the man demanded. "I will not allow you to interfere with my plans again!"
"Wait, how'd you know my name?" asked Fasttrack cluelessly. "And what do you mean again. I've never met you, dude."
"And you never will," said the stranger threateningly.
The helmeted attacker threw another laser that incinerated the table, forcing Fasttrack and Trixie to relocate. Fasttrack skidded across the asphalt and charged headlong into the black-coated stranger, but the enemy effortlessly sidestepped, causing the Citrakayah to smash face first into a truck. Fasttrack pulled away, shaking the daze out of his head, then turned around as the assailant pulled out a purple energy beam. The attacked slashed his weapon down, only for Fasttrack to dash to the side. The stranger's sword easily sliced through the metal truck like a hot knife through butter, the two pieces falling sideways.
"Whoa, I gotta get me one of those," said Fasttrack.
The stranger swept his sword around, forcing Fasttrack to duck underneath. Unfortunately, it seemed the enemy had anticipated this move and blasted Fasttrack in the chest with another purple beam. Fasttrack was, thankfully, unharmed, but the energy beam appeared to freeze him in place like it did to Max and Gwen.
"Benjamin!" cried Trixie, glaring at the stranger. "You'll pay for that. Accessing – "
"Not this time!" yelled the stranger.
Almost as if time itself had slowed down for everyone except the stranger, the assailant crossed the parking lot and grabbed Trixie's arm before she could complete her command.
That's when something unusual happened – at least, as unusual it can be for them.
The second that the helmeted attacked touched her arm, Trixie felt a surge of energy rise from deep within her core and exploded out of her body. A surge of green energy pulsated outward, throwing the masked villain across the lot and into the RV. At the same time, the energy wave removed whatever effects were holding the Tennyson frozen in time. When the energy wave vanished, Trixie dropped to her knees, shaking her head in a daze. The green-haired girl blinked the stars from her eyes and rose to her feet, but when she spoke again, her voice sounded strangely mature compared to her youthful appearance, and had an air of levity to it.
"Don't know what that was all about," said OV Trixie, her lips quirking into an uncharacteristically cocky smirk, "but now it's my turn, whack job."
"Uh, did Trixie just say 'whack job?'" Gwen asked her grandfather, bewildered.
"Yeah, I heard it to," said Max, equally surprised.
The faceless attacker fires a purple laser at Trixie, but is surprised (along with everyone else) when the green-haired girl suddenly vanishes in a blur of motion. Trixie reappears behind her attacker with the legs of Fasttrack and the wings of Jetray before reverting back to human form. Before the attack knew what hit him, Trixie wordlessly morphed her right arm into Snare-O's bandages and bounded the assailant's arms to his side. While the villain struggled to break loose, Buzzshocks nodes sprouted on Trixie's mummified arm like mushrooms. The human Omnitrix shocked the attacker with what must have been a million jolts of electricity, making him cry out in pain.
Possibly sensing his impending defeat, the helmeted stranger suddenly shimmered out of existence just as he had appeared. Trixie's electrified bandages fell uselessly to the ground where the enemy once stood before she retracted them and changed her arm back to normal.
"That's right, you better run!" said OV Trixie, clapping her hands for a job well done. "Well, that was a workout. Anyone up for smoothies? My treat."
"Trixie, what the heck was that?" asked Fasttrack as he approached his partner.
"Ben?" said OV Trixie, sounding surprised. "When did you get back? I thought you and Rook were visiting his family on Revonnah."
"Uh…what?" said Fasttrack, not knowing how to respond to that.
Just then, the Omnitrix beeped and Fasttrack exploded in a flash of red light, reverting Ben back to his childish form. This time, it was Trixie's turn to look confused.
"Ben? Why did you turn into a little kid?" asked OV Trixie, tilting her head. That was when Max and Gwen ran over to join them. "Gwen? Why are you a little kid?" She looked down at her hands, taking a look at herself for the first time since the energy wave. "AHH! Why am I little kid?!"
"What's with your voice?" asked Gwen. "You sound even weirder than usual."
"This isn't me!" yelped OV Trixie. "I mean, it is me, but it's me a long time ago! I'm a teenager now!"
"Easy, Trixie," said Max gently. "You must have taken a clonk to the noggin."
"It was that guy in the helmet!" snapped OV Trixie.
"...You mean that guy in the helmet clonked you on the noggin?" asked Max.
"No! He sent me back in time somehow," said OV Trixie. "Or sent my brain, anyway."
"Your brain's definitely gone somewhere," said Ben.
"Trixie might be right, Ben," said Max. "Like Gwen said, she doesn't sound like our Trixie."
"Then where is our Trixie?" asked Gwen, worried.
"In the words of Benjamin…," OS Trixie murmured, staring herself in the Mr. Smoothie window, "this is super freaky."
Trixie had absolutely no clue what had just happened. One minute she was fighting some random villain, and the next she was in a completely new city (yet still had the same Mr. Smoothie shop) in a completely new body, which was technically her own body, but older.
Hew future self still had long green-and-black stripped hair, but it was now pulled back into a high ponytail with a single braid over her shoulder. She had kept her white-and-green aesthetic, but had replaced her dress for a bodysuit that fit her (modestly) athletics form with the same Galvanic Mechamorph pattern around the collar, heavy duty boots, and elbow length gloves. She also had a strange visor on her head that looked like it had been heavily modified, equipped with its own onboard computer system. (Based on artwork by Clover-Karin)
Honestly, in her personal opinion, she didn't look half bad.
Just then, Trixie heard a set of rushing footsteps approach her from behind. She turned around and first noticed Max, though he looked somewhat older and was heavily armed with alien technology. Next to him was a young girl around Trixie's age that seemed oddly familiar to her: tan-skinned, brown eyes, sleek-black hair tied back into a ponytail, and looked to be equipped with her own Plumber tech, but was customized for her own athletic build. Where had Trixie seen her before?
"Trixie, are you all right?" asked Max, concern.
"I'm…not so sure," Maxwell," said OS Trixie uncertainly.
"Maxwell?" Max repeated, surprised. "You haven't called me by my full name in years."
"What happened to the freak in the helmet?" asked the teenage girl.
The minute she heard the girl's voice, it hit Trixie like a speeding train. She knew that voice anyway! She remembered that voice emotionally devastating her friends in Arizona, right before she punched the owner in the face.
"Kai?" yelled OS Trixie, startling the pair. "Kai Green, is that you?"
"Uh, yeah?" said Kai awkwardly.
"What're you doing here?" questioned OS Trixie.
"We've been partners for the last two months," said Kai, raising a curious brow. "Are you okay, Trixie? What's wrong with your voice?"
"We're partners?" asked OS Trixie, dumbfounded. "Us? After I knocked your lights out in Arizona?"
"You really love bringing that up that, don't you?" Kai glowered, crossing her arms.
"Easy, Kai," said Max gently. "Trixie must have taken a clonk to the noggin."
"Interesting…"
Trixie, Kai, and Max spun around as the helmeted villain shimmered into existence in the middle of the parking lot again.
"A full temporal consciousness inversion," said the villain. "Not the effect I was going for, but it should still have the desired result."
"You're still here?" said Kai, whipping out her laser pistol and aiming at the enemy. "Who are you? What'd you do to my reluctantly assigned partner?"
"You could have left out the 'reluctantly assigned' part," said OS Trixie blandly.
"I know," said Kai, smirking.
"That is unimportant," said the villain. "Now tell me where the Chronotrix is?"
"Chrono – what?" said OS Trixie, confused.
"Ugh," the villain groaned exasperatedly, running a hand down his visor. "The version of you that oversees the timelines of the new multiverse."
"There's another version of me?" said OS Trixie, surprised. "I thought Infinitrix was the only one."
"…No, I suppose you wouldn't know about her," said the villain after a calm moment of thought. "You haven't met the Chronotrix yet. She'll go to the other one."
And without a word of explanation, the villain took a step back and shimmered away again –
Back in the past, the Tennyson family surround the Trixie from the future, who was sitting on a bench with her head in her hand, trying to make sense of what just happened.
"So, if you're really from the future...what's it like?" asked Ben eagerly. "What am I like?"
"Well, you've definitely matured over the years," answered OV Trixie; Gwen scoffed in disbelief. "You've become a good hero, and an even better friend."
"Sweet," said Ben, grinning.
"And me?" asked Gwen eagerly. "What happens to me?"
"You're actually pretty cool," said OV Trixie. "I miss you a lot..."
"Miss me?" Gwen repeated curiously, then gasped. "Am I dead? I'm dead, aren't I?"
"Wha – no!" OV Trixie shook her head quickly. "You just went to college! Early, in fact. You're doing great."
"I go to college early?" said Gwen excitedly.
"No more spoilers," Max warned. "Time travel is tricky business. The less we know about the future, the better."
"Wise words from a wise man, indeed."
The Tennysons jump with startled cries, not realizing that someone had slipped into their group without their notice.
Ben and the other immediately honed in on the fact that the newcomer looked exactly like Trixie, only she was a fully grown adult with lengthy white-and-black striped hair tied in an elaborate French braid that wrapped around her shoulders like a ring. She dressed herself in pure white robe, giving her the appearance of a priest, with a large clock motif around the collar and spattered with Roman numerals. She leaned against a tall wooden staff entwined around a crystal hourglass.
"The Chronotrix?" said OV Trixie, surprised by the woman's appearance. "What are you doing here?"
"Your brain had been displaced in time," said the Chronotrix with dry sarcasm, "and you're asking me, the overseer of the multiversal timestream, what I am doing here?"
"Hmm, good point," OV Trixie admitted.
"Uh, Trixie," Max chimed in, looking deeply confused. "You want to introduce us to your friend here?"
"Oh, my apologies, I can see I have you at a disadvantage," Chronotrix apologized politely. "Or I will have had you at a disadvantage. Time travel makes verb tenses so confusing... Anyway, I am the Chronotrix. And for reasons of temporal stability, we shall not go into further detail. Trixie, a word, if you please."
Trixie from the future gave a quick glance at her family, shrugging, then followed her time-themed counterpart to the opposite end of the parking lot.
"Okay, I've got a lot of questions, Chronotrix," said OV Trixie. "For starters, who was the creep that switched my brain?"
"That would be Eon," answered Chronotrix.
"Okay, second question: who the heck is Eon?" asked OV Trixie.
"Someone who shouldn't exist in this version of the multiverse," said Chronotrix. "I'm sure you remember the story of how this new multiverse came into existence."
"Yeah, it was when we met the original Ben during that whole 'Forge of Creation' thing," said OV Trixie. "In the old multiverse, Ben fought in the Time War against an evil Chronosapien named Maltruant."
"And in his victory, Ben aided in the creation of a new branch of timelines," Chronotrix continued, "thus building the new multiverse we have the pleasure of existing in. This new multiverse is similar to the original, but with a few…modifications."
"Like the Trixies of the multiverse," said OV Trixie; Chronotrix nodded. "Nice history lesson, but what does any of that have to do with this Eon guy?"
"Eon was resident of the original multiverse," Chronotrix explained. "He aided Maltruant during the Time War, but after he served his purpose, Maltruant banished him outside the timestream, where he would have presumably been trapped until the end of existence itself. But when the new multiverse was formed, Eon escaped into our timeline. Now he's desperately searching for a way to escape our multiverse and return to his own."
"And how is he going to do that?" asked OV Trixie seriously.
"By searching for the first universe that came into existence – the Prime Universe," said Chronotrix. "It is the connecting point between the two multiverses. As of now, the only way to locate the Prime Universe is with the Chrononavigatior, and Eon will stop at nothing to obtain it."
"The Chrono – okay, now you're just making up words," said OV Trixie.
"Keeping track of all timelines is impossible, even for someone as timeless as I," said Chronotrix. "That's why I created the Chrononagivator – to chart the multiverse. Trixie, we must keep the Chrononavigator out of Eon's hands at all cost. Do you understand?"
Eon must have been waiting for his cue, because he dramatically (read: theatrically) shimmered into existence off to their left side at that exact moment.
"The Chrononavigator!" Eon demanded. "Give it to me, timekeeper!"
"You know very well that is never going to happen," said Chronotrix, shaking her head.
"Then I'll just have to take it from you...," said Eon darkly.
Eon unsheathed his laser sword again and charged at the pair of Trixies. Chronotrix quickly shoved Trixie behind her and raised her staff to meet Eon's blade, holding it in place. Eon tried to take a swing at the timekeeper with his free hand, but Chronotrix ducked underneath his reach and retaliated with a palm thrust to the abdomen, shoving Eon back.
As the two time travelers exchanged blows, the Omnitrix finished its recharge.
"Hold on, I'll help!" shouted Ben, getting ready to slap the faceplate.
"No, Ben!" shouted Chronotrix. "This is not your fight!"
While she was distracted, Eon grabbed Chronotrix by the front of her robe and shoved her to the ground. The timekeeper flipped around and raised her staff to defend herself, but Eon sliced the rod in half, sending the hourglass piece sliding across the parking lot and stopping at Trixie's feet.
"Do what you will, Eon," said Chronotrix, glaring defiantly up at her enemy. "You will never get your hands on the device you seek."
"Time will tell," said Eon cockily.
"Dear god, he does time puns," Trixie grimaced. "He really is evil."
Eon picked up the timekeeper by the front of her robe as the pair slowly began to shimmer away.
"Remember, Trixie!" Chronotrix called out as she steadily evaporated. "The darkest hour is just before the dawn!"
With that last cryptic message, the time travelers vanished. Trixie frowned as she looked down at the hourglass at her feet, a thought slowly starting to form in the forefront of her mind.
"The darkest hour…." OV Trixie murmured.
First, Trixie had to come to terms with that fact that her brain had jumped forward into her future body. Then she found out she was partners with the jerk who broke Ben's heart. Now she finds out that there is an entire hidden Plumbers base hidden beneath Ben's hometown of Bellwood, and that aliens are walking around in broad daylight. All Trixie could wonder was: What the heck happened in the last six years?
Right now, Trixie was being examined by two little aliens from a species she had never heard of. Both of them were barely taller than a human child with pale-green skin, bulbous, solid-colored eyes, and insect-like antenna. The distinct difference between these two was that the male was thematically red while the female was purple. Trixie had to admit, she was interested in learning more about this new species of sentient life just as much as the werewolf and the mummy.
"I've never even heard of Irkens before," said OS Trixie as the male prodded her with a strange device. "What is the nature of your species?"
"Silence, human worm baby!" the red male screamed unnecessarily. "Zim will not divulge the Irken races superior intelligence and military stratagem. Zim won't even tell you that our main flagship, the Massive, is – "
"Shut up, you idiot," the purple female screeched, slapping her counterpart with a mechanical spider leg from the metal pod on her back. "You're going to give away Irken secrets to these human flesh bags!"
"No, I wasn't, Tak!" snapped Zim. "Zim's brilliance – "
"Brilliance?!" howled Tak. "You're the moron who thoughts it was a good idea to eat that hamburger when you know what meat does to our species!"
"THEY SAID IT WAS VEGETARIAN!" shrieked Zim.
Trixie watched the Zim's devolved into a shouting match to see who can screech the loudest. Kai, who had been standing by the whole time, pinched the bridge of her nose in agony.
"Why are these two working here again?" OS Trixie asked her partner.
"They're illegal aliens – literally – from another universe," Kai explained with an exasperated sigh as the shouting escalated into a fist fight. "And now they're helping the Plumbers to work off their gray cards. They're idiots and they keep sabotaging each other, but they're just as smart as Galvans."
"We are far superior to those little gray amphibians!" yelled Zim.
"For once, we agree on something!" said Tak.
Just then, Max walked into the room, ignoring the little green aliens rolling around on the floor like it was just another day in the office.
"Were you able to get ahold of Ben?" Kai asked hopefully.
"No such luck," said Max, shaking his head disappointedly. "Him and Rook are still on Revonnah, and you know how old fashioned they are. I'm afraid until Ben and Rook come back, I'm gonna need you to look after Trixie, Kai."
"With all due respect, Max," said Kai, hold her hands up, "I'm barely learning to get along with teenage Trixie. And I don't think ten-year-old Trixie is gonna want to get along with someone she punched out recently. Is there anyone else who has experience dealing with this version?"
"I do."
Everyone turned towards the door at the same time. Standing at the threshold was a tall and muscular punk-looking man with dark circles under his eyes and long shaggy hair styled into a mullet. Even though his was older and much more grizzled, Trixie instantly recognized her best friend's face (especially since he was still wearing the same padlock around his neck.)
"Kevin!" OS Trixie shouted with joy. She jumped out of the seat and ran over to hug her much taller friend (she barely came up to his shoulder). What surprised her more than his appearance was that he hugged her back.
"Good to see ya, Trix," said Kevin as they pulled away with a sincere smile. "Been a while."
"More than you can imagine," said OS Trixie, relieved to see an old friend. It took a moment before her brain caught up to an important fact. "Wait a minute. You're…human again. Does that mean…?"
"It all works out, Trix," said Kevin knowingly. "Don't worry about it."
"And us?" asked OS Trixie cautiously. "Are we still…?"
Kevin grinned and held up his fist to her. Trixie smiled back and raised her own fist to bump his.
"Not that it isn't great to see you, son," said Max as he and Kai joined them, "but what're you doing here?"
"Ben called me before he left for Ravonnah," Kevin explained. "He told me to come and find Trix on this exact date and time. He seemed to think that she'd be in trouble while he was gone. Looks like he was right."
"But how would Benjamin have known that I would be in trouble on this exact date?" asked OS Trixie curiously.
"Unless our Trixie asked him to come looking for her," said Max thoughtfully. "If ten-year-old Trixie's brain is in sixteen-year-old Trixie's body, then it's only logical that sixteen-year-old Trixie's brain was sent back to her ten-year-old body. Like some kind of...cross-time brain swap."
"Wouldn't you have remembered something like that?" asked Kai. "I mean, Ben apparently remembered having to find Trixie."
"I don't know," Max sighed, massaging his temple. "This time travel stuff always gives me a headache."
"Did Ben say anything else?" Kai asked Kevin.
"Only that I'm supposed to take her to Mr. Smoothy's," said Kevin.
"Well, that seems random," OS Trixie commented.
While the heroes were running around trying to solve the mystery of the Time-swapping Trixies, Eon had taken his prisoner to the very end of the timeline, where all life had vanished from the earth, the sky turned blood-red with black spots of decay floating through the atmosphere, swallowing any loose matter than touched it. The cityscape was left in ruins, remnants of a broken world that had long since perished.
Eon circled the Chronotrix, whom he had suspended between a pair of broken pillars by her wrists using archaic metal shackles. Chronotrix leered defiantly at her captor as he paced for what must have been the tenth time.
"You are a weak and pathetic child, Chronotrix," said Eon tauntingly. "Just like the time-walker who came before you."
"I seem to recall that 'time-walker' outsmarting you time and again," said Chronotrix smugly, taking satisfaction at Eon's momentary displeasure.
"You have the power to take full advantage of this new multiverse," said Eon irritably. "You, who was blessed with not only the Chrononavigator, but also the full knowledge of the multiverse that came before. And yet you never thought to use it for yourself."
"Because that worked out so well for you, didn't it, Eon?" said Chronotrix sarcastically. "It's funny, really, that even in a new multiverse, you're still making the same mistakes." Eon got up in her face, growling. Chronotrix could see herself in the temporal villain's visor, but maintained a neutral stare. "In any event, I couldn't give you the Chrononavigator even if I wanted to. As you can easily tell, I don't have it on my person."
"Hmm…," Eon hummed thoughtfully. "No, I suppose you don't. Like the time-walker, you would have hidden it somewhere in plain view, yet also out of sight."
"I'll take that as a compliment," said Chronotrix.
"I have some ideas of where you may have hidden it," said Eon, brandishing his laser sword again. "But…I do like to be thorough."
We return to the past where future-brained Trixie was sitting in the Rust Bucket across the table from Ben, clutching the hourglass that had broken from Chronotrix's staff. Max had run off to make a few important calls to his Plumber allies and get a signal out to a group calling themselves 'The Time Squad.' Though Max emphasize that calling them was a last resort option; he didn't seem to have much faith in them. Gwen was basically done with their weirdness for the day and was spending her free time at Mr. Smoothy, showing a surprise fondness to their unique flavors.
"'The darkest hour is just before the dawn,'" OV Trixie murmured. "A phase meaning that things will only get worse before they get better. But knowing the Chronotrix, it must have had a double meaning. Most likely this hourglass is the key to finding the Chrono-wachamacallit."
"Does this kind of weird junk happen all the time in the future?" asked Ben.
"It only gets more complicated as we get older," OV Trixie admitted with a tired sigh, setting aside the hourglass. "I just hope I figure this out before Friday. Me and Charmcaster are going to the music festival this weekend."
"You're going out with Charmcaster?" asked Ben, surprised.
"Honestly, I don't know," said OV Trixie, holding her head with a confused expression. "I mean, for years, I kinda gave up on the idea of me and Charmcaster getting together – what with the age difference and her showing no interest in me that way. So, I went out with this nice Lenopan girl named Lucy for a while, but things got…messy, and we broke up. Now, all of a sudden, Charmcaster seems like she wants to be with me, but I'm skeptical. We agreed to go to the festival together and see where it goes from there.
"Wow, that is complicated," said Ben, wincing sympathetically.
"You don't know the half of it," OV Trixie groaned.
"So…what about me?" asked Ben curiously. "Do I get together with anyone?"
"You were going out with this amazing girl named Julie," said OV Trixie. "But things got…hectic in the last few months, so you both decided to break up amicably."
"What happened?" asked Ben.
"Complicated," said OV Trixie simply. "You know, I shouldn't really be telling you any of this. Max said it could affect the timeline."
"Yeah, but grandpa isn't here right now," said Ben. "Besides, if this really happened in your past and you don't remember it, something must have happened to make you forget it. It happens all the time in anime and movies."
"Hmm, that's actually a good point," said OV Trixie surprisingly. "If that's true, then I need you to do me a favor, Ben. Maybe the most important thing I'll ever ask you to do. Six years from today, you have to find me, no matter where I am. And if you can't do it yourself, then send someone you know you can trust."
"Six years…?" Ben repeated, dumbfounded.
"Exactly six years," OV Trixie emphasized. "To the day and time. Come find me, and take me to, um..." She looked outside the window up at the Mr. Smoothy sign. "Mr. Smoothy's. In Bellwood."
"There's a Mr. Smoothy in Bellwood," said Ben, grimacing at the idea.
"There will be, one day," said OV Trixie. "Make sure I go there, whether you do it or someone else does. I'll explain everything then. I hope. Can you do that? Promise me, Ben…. Please."
Ben stared at her in silence for a moment, his brown screwing up in thought, then said, "This whole thing is crazy…. But, yeah, I'll do it. I'll get you to Mr. Smoothy's, somehow."
"Thanks…Benjamin," OV Trixie said with a hint of nostalgia in her voice. She picked up the hourglass again. "Now stay here. I need to go take care of something."
On that ominous, Trixie got up from the table. She wordlessly transformed her legs into a Citrakayah and ran out the door in a blur of motion –
Back to the future (totally unintentional XD), Trixie, Kai, and Kevin drive through downtown Bellwood in Kevin's car.
"Mr. Smoothy's?" said OS Trixie curiously. "You mean that franchise actually took off? And here I thought humans hated anything that wasn't boring."
"Believe it or not, you guys love this place," said Kai.
"It's true," Kevin supported. "We used to hang out here all the time. You, me, Ben, Gwen, Rex, and Lucy."
"Who and who?" asked OS Trixie cluelessly.
"You'll meet them eventually," said Kai simply.
They eventually arrive in the Mr. Smoothy's parking, which was thankfully empty – they didn't need innocent bystanders getting in the crossfire of…whatever was happening. They got out of Kevin's car and started looking around.
"Okay, we brought her here," said Kai. "Now what're we supposed to do?"
"I don't know," Kevin admitted. "Ben didn't tell me."
"Typical," Kai groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Always leaving out the important details."
"You know, you could stand to be a little nicer to the guy who saved you and your grandfather," said OS Trixie heatedly.
"I don't need sass from a little kid in a big girl's body," Kai retorted.
The two "partners" were literally butting heads now; Kevin looked like he was just done with everything.
"Maybe I'll just take a look around," said Kevin with an irritated sigh.
"Wait a minute," said OS Trixie, pulling back (and letting Kai fall flat on the ground) when she noticed something at the base of the Mr. Smoothy sign. "Isn't that the Omnitrix symbol?"
"Hmm…," Kevin hummed, kneeling down for a closer inspection. "It's etched right into the metal. Any idea how it got there?"
"Trixie?" said Kai, standing up and brushing herself off.
"Why are you blaming me for?" said OS Trixie heatedly. "I didn't put that there."
"I think you did," said Kevin, scratching his head. "Or you're going to have done... Man, Chronotrix was right, time travel makes verb tenses confusing."
"Chronotrix?" repeated OS Trixie. "You mean the person that man in the helmet was looking for?"
"What man in a helmet?" asked Kevin.
The Chronotrix breathing grew heavy, her throat hoarse from Eon's torture. But even in pain, she endured, which annoyed Eon to no end.
"You had to have used the Chrononavigator to get to the younger Omnitrix," said Eon. "So what did you have then, that you don't have now...?" The villainous time traveler turned away for a moment, staring into space. Then, he remembered something, and faced the Chronotrix once more. "Cleaver. Very clever. Hidden, but still within view. Just like the time-walker."
"I learned from the best," said Chronotrix smugly.
"Now that I know the answer," said Eon, "I'll simply return to the moment I broke your staff in two, and retrieve it."
"With two time travellers already there?" questioned Chronotrix. "Plus Trixie's condition. You are well aware that the fabric of space-time is already stretched dangerously thin at that particular moment. If you go back there now, you could cause a rupture, and be lost outside of time altogether!"
"Mmm…that is true," Eon admitted reluctantly. "But there is another way…."
Chronotrix seemed surprised by his confidence. The villainous time traveler walked away and shimmered through the timestream –
"Hey, what's that?" asked Kevin, tilting his head back to look up at the sign.
"What?" OS Trixie and Kai asked in unison, butting their heads again.
He pointed to the bar just beneath the sign. It looked like something was scratched into the metal, but it was too far to see.
"I'll take a look," said OS Trixie. "Accessing Nemuina sequence."
"I forgot she used to say stuff like that out loud," said Kai as her partner sprouted fairy wings and bug-like eyes with a slicked up hairdo.
"She phased it out as she got older," Kevin explained.
Trixie flapped her wings and rose to level with the Mr. Smoothy sign.
"See anything?" Kai called up to her brain-swapped partner.
"There are some numbers up here!" OS Trixie shouted back. "They look like coordinates! '35.35-118.96' – and some word I've never heard of: 'Armo-drillo?'"
"Coordinates…," Kai hummed thoughtfully, whipping out her smartphone. "Yeah, here it is! They lead to the old, abandoned sewer system under Bellwood!"
"Let me guess: abandoned six years ago?" said Kevin.
"Give the man a prize," said Kai. "Now it's right in the middle of Undertown."
Trixie descended back to the ground and reverted to human form as she said that and asked, "What's Undertown?"
So, apparently there was an entire underground alien city in the middle of Bellwood – everyone was fine with that. The future was weird, Trixie thought.
The coordinates they discovered at Mr. Smoothy's led them to a little pop-up shop called Pakmar's Fine Teas – a classy little store stocked with ceramic teapots, kettles, cups – anything pertaining to tea. Which was really impractical since most Americans either preferred soda or scolding-hot coffee. Trixie, Kai, and Kevin stepped out of Kevin's car and entered the shop when they spotted the shopkeeper: a warty little green alien in a metal space suit. The alien merchant gasped in horror, flying over the counter (and knocking over several of his products), and blocking entry to his store.
"Oh no. No-no-no-no-no, no you don't!" the alien merchant squealed. "There will be no destroying of Pakmar's place of business today! None of you are welcome here! Read the sign!"
He pointed to a giant poster that took up an entire space on the wall with mugshots on Trixie, Kai, a teenage boy that looked like an older version of Ben, and a Revonnahgander in armor and the word "BANNED" in bold print at the top.
"…What did we do here?" OS Trixie whispered to her partner.
"He's exaggerating," said Kia nonchalantly, then rounded on the alien called Pakmar. "Mr. Pakmar, sir, we just need to get to the basement. Plumber business. I promise you no harm will come to your shop."
Pakmar let out an exasperated groan and said, "Pakmar has heard that one before."
Though he seemed reluctant to do so, Pakmar led Trixie, Kai, and Kevin down the stairs to the basement of his shop, which was full of delicate-looking objects that would break if you so much looked in its direction. Kai checked her smartphone and pointed to the floor in the middle of the room.
"This is the place," she said.
"So that "Armodrillo" thing is here somewhere?" asked OS Trixie.
"Armodrillo is one of the aliens Ben unlocked," Kevin explained. Trixie gave him a confused look. "It's an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy – brand new. Just think of a big alien in yellow armor with jackhammer arms and there you go."
Trixie quirked a curious brow and looked down at her hands. She tried to imagine the alien Kevin was talking about…and was surprised that the information suddenly popped into her head when she thought about it. Almost like it had been downloaded into her brain. The next second, Trixie's arms were transformed into a pair of armored gauntlets with pistons coming out of the elbows. Her arms started vibrating powerfully as the pistons started shooting up and down, becoming a pair of jackhammers like Kevin described.
Trixie jabbed her hands into the floor and started burrowing into the ground. But in doing so, the vibrations caused hundreds of Pakmar's delicate items to fly off the shelves and smash on the ground. Pakmar's jaw was dropped in despair and horror while Kevin and Kai had retreated on top of the tables to avoid the chaos.
"You just had to tell her, didn't you?" Kai said to Kevin, who had the consciousness to look ashamed.
"Hey, I found something!" OS Trixie shouted from deep within the hole; Kai and Kevin moved in closer for a better look. "There are more numbers down here on this pipe I just hit! One –
DING!
"Oh…oh no…."
Less than ten seconds later, Kai, Kevin, and a now de-transformed Trixie were making a beeline for Kevin's car. They manage to get inside just in time as a tidal wave of sewer water flows out of the shop, slamming a disgruntled Pakmar against the windshield. As the water receded, Pakmar slowly slipped down the hood of Kevin's car.
"Pakmar will send you the bill," said Pakmar. "Again..."
"They're more coordinates, all right," said Kai, checking the GPS on her phone as they drove across town. "Not far, either."
"So you think our Trixie left these clues for this Trixie six years ago?" asked Kevin. "Why would she do that?"
"It makes sense, in a way," said OS Trixie. "It's like a treasure map. One that only someone like myself or Benjamin would be able to follow using our alien transformations. Most likely, it leads to something very important."
"I guess we'll just have to keep following clues until we find out," said Kai.
The events that transpired over the next several hours moved like a cartoon montage:
The clue at Pakmar's led them to a disgusting gas station bathroom. Trixie crawls out of the rusted faucet as a Galvan, covered in all sorts of undesirable things that made Kai gag in disgust. But it was worth it because Trixie found a piece of metal lodged in the piping with the next set of coordinates.
Their next destination was a radioactive power plant on the outskirts of Bellwood, which could not have been safe for the townspeople or the environment. Trixie used an alien that was made of pure radioactive energy, which was contained behind a metal shell. Apparently it was from the Andromeda Galaxy as well. Trixie entered the reactor core without any negative side effects and came out with the next set of numbers on a broken pipe.
Her next transformation consisted of a half-Vulpimancer with wild orange hair, dagger-like claws, and a heightened sense of smell. Trixie crawled around on all-fours, sniffing out the supermarket parking lot, when she finally caught a familiar scent: herself. Trixie dug into the asphalt and came up with another piece of metal etched with the next location –
Which was back at the Mr. Smoothy's parking lot where they started this wild treasure hunt.
"You're sure these are the right numbers?" asked Kai doubtfully.
"You saw them, too," OS Trixie pointed out.
"There has to be a mistake," said Kevin, shaking his head as they all got out of the car. "Why make us drive all over town - and Undertown - following clues, just to lead us back here?"
"It's crazy!" said Kai.
"No, it's brilliant!" said OS Trixie "No one would ever think to look for something hidden at the start of a treasure map!"
Kai sighed and reluctantly admitted, "Well, when you put it that way, it is kind of brilliant..."
The three of them walk around the building, searching for more clues. Kai, looking at her smartphone, comes to a stop at the back of the store and points out a section of the wall to Trixie.
"Any recommendations for this one?" OS Trixie asked Kevin.
"Try a Necrofrigian," Kevin suggested.
So Ben managed to unlock the Necrofriggian, Trixie thought. A suitable replacement for after Z'Skayr escaped the Omnitrix. Trixie called out the name of the DNA ("Accessign Necrofriggian sequence!"), then sprouted a set of four insectoid wings, her skin turned blue, and gained a set of compounded green eyes.
Necrofriggian-Trixie glided into the building, turning her body permeable and passed through the wall. It only took a few seconds before she came back out and reverted to human form, carrying a large crystal hourglass in her arms.
"I didn't see any more coordinate inside," said OS Trixie, holding up the hourglass, "but I did find this inside the wall."
"Wait, I've seen that before," said kevin after getting a closer look. "That's the hourglass from the Chronotrix's stick or whatever."
"Okay, so we know it belongs to this Chronotrix person," said Kai. "But what does it do?"
Right at that moment, Eon shimmered into reality directly behind Trixie. The malevolent time traveler swiped the hourglass out of Trixie's unfocused grip and shoved her to the ground as he stepped forward, laughing like a cartoon villain.
"Only grant dominion over all of time and space!" said Eon dastardly. "And thanks to you, it is now mine! With the Chrononavigator, I will finally be able to leave this worthless replica of a multiverse and take my revenge on my real enemies."
"So that's Eon, huh?" asked Kevin. "Doesn't look so tough."
Irritated, Eon held out the hourglass and fired a white bolt from the timepiece at him. Kevin slid out of the way, but the bolt stuck his car, instantly aging the vehicle until it turned to dust.
"MY CAR!" Kevin cried in anguish.
"I was wondering when it was gonna happen," Kai commented.
"That's it, Eon!" shouted OS Trixie. "As Benjamin would say, I'm about to clean your clock! Accessing Polar Manzardill and Petrosapien sequences!"
Trixie grew the Arctiguana's shell and tail along with its freeze breath, but her arms and head were crystalized to match Diamondhead.
The Omnitrix hybrid exhaled a cold beam at Eon, who blocked the freeze ray with his shields. However, frozen crystals steadily formed over his barrier, spreading down Eon's arm, and encased him in a block of ice. Trixie had hoped that would be enough to stop the villainous time travel in his tracks, but Eon fired off a purple beam from his hand and broke the shell with ease.
Eon raised the hourglass to the air, summoning its power in the form of purple lightning. Four bolts shot into the air, fabricating rifts in space-time, which summoned a small squad of soldiers in armor similar to Eon's, all carrying laser swords. Kai whipped out her laser pistol and Kevin kneeled down to touch the asphalt, absorbing the material into his body and reshaping his hands into a mace and hammer respectively. Trixie didn't know he could do that!
Eon's minions charged at the heroes. Kai fired off several shots from her pistol, but the masked soldiers deflected the laser bullets with their swords. But they couldn't deflect Kevin, who charged headlong into the group and knocked them over like bowling pins. Trixie slammed her fists into the ground, summoning a wave of ice crystals that spread across the ground and swallowed the minions before they could get back up.
"Done and done," said OS Trixie.
"Oh, but there's more where that came from!" declared Eon.
Eon raised the hourglass again, summoning three more minions charging Kai. Trixie's partner swiftly holstered her pistol and took a combative stance, sweeping past the first minion and elbowing him from behind. The second servant took a swing for her head, but Kai ducked underneath and retaliated with powerful uppercut. And when the third one charged in, he left himself wide open for Kai to perform a spinning kick to the gut, smashing him through one of the outdoor tables. The first minion attempted to attack the Navajo Plumber from behind, but Kevin jumped in and slammed the helmeted goon over the head with his hammer-fist, knocking them out cold. And Trixie sealed the deal by sealing them in ice blocks.
Though the villain's thugs were defeated, Kai noticed something even more troubling –
"The holes in time!" she shouted. "They're not closing!"
The rifts in space fly towards Eon, circling the malevolent time traveler, who appeared frightened by the phenomenon. And just when it seemed like this day couldn't get any stranger, another tear in reality opened up in front of the heroes, which revealed the bewildered expression of Ben and Trixie's ten-year-old counterpart.
"Benjamin?" said OS Trixie, bewildered.
"Trixie," said Ben, his jaw dropped.
"Kai? Kevin?" asked OV Trixie, equally confused.
"Trix/Trixie!" Kai and Kevin shouted in unison.
"Kai? Kevin?" said Ben, blinking.
"Ben?" said Kai and Kevin together.
"Okay, I think we've established who is who here." Another portal in time opened up beside the window to the past, revealing the impatient expression of the Chronotrix. "Now would someone mind terrible releasing me from these shackles. My wrists are starting to chaff."
"What is this, Chronotrix?!" Eon screamed, frantically waving the rifts away from himself. "You tricked me!"
"On the contrary, I warned you!" Chronotrix scolded the villain. "Stop this now, or all of existence will be destroyed!"
"Never!" Eon screamed furiously. "If I cannot escape this multiverse, I shall destroy it!"
Eon raised the hourglass to the sky, summoning more bolts of lightning that was steadily generating into a storm felt across both time periods.
"The hourglass!" OV Trixie yelled over the raging winds. "Where is it?!"
"Eon has it!" cried OS Trixie.
Ben screwed up his face in determination, activating the Omnitrix, and slammed down the faceplate, transforming into Snare-O in a flash of green light.
'Then Snare-O is gonna take it back!" said Snare-O.
The mummified hero whipped his hands out, shooting his wrapping at Eon through the hole in time. But the moment they reached into the future, the bandages suddenly disintegrated. Eon noticed their attempt and fired a purple beam through the rift, forcing Snare-O to grab Trixie and take cover behind the Rust Bucket.
"Hey! Leave her – I mean, me – alone!" yelled OS Trixie.
Trixie smashed her fist into the ground again, summoning a wave of ice crystals that caught Eon by surprise and froze the left half of his body. Eon staggered away from Trixie, unconsciously stepping his other half into the future. Once he crossed over, Snare-O lashed out his wrappings and restrained his arms and legs. Eon roared furiously as the heroes from both sides of the timeline pinned him down.
And while they were dealing with the villainous time traveler, Kai ran over to the portal holding Chronotrix and whipped out her laser pistol. She carefully took aim before firing off two shots, both accurately hitting the metal shackles aqnd breaking them into shards. Chronotrix rubbed her wrists, relieved to be free at last, and stepped through the rift into the future without any apparent side effects.
"Thank you, Miss Green," said Chronotrix gratefully. "I starting to think I had been forgotten."
"The timestream is falling apart," Kai stated the obvious as more tears appeared in the sky above their heads. "Isn't there anything you can do to stop this?"
Meanwhile, Eon yelled in frustration and released a pulse of energy that threw Snare-O and Trixie back, the latter de-transforming after bouncing off the ground with a pained, "Ow…." Future-brained Trixie helped her old friend sit up and stared through the portal at the only person who might have a possible solution to their current predicament.
"Chronotrix, if you have any suggestions, now would be the time!" yelled OV Trixie.
"You must anchor Eon to your respective time zones!" said Chronotrix "I would suggest Clockwork!"
"But past Ben doesn't have Clockwork!" said OV Trixie.
"Who's Clockwork?" cried OS Trixie.
"The Chronosapien!" said Chronotrix as the temporal storm grew stronger. "If activated at the same moment, you two might be able to synchronize!"
"'Might?'" OS Trixie repeated, aghast. "You're basing this whole plan on 'might?!'"
"Well, it's better than 'won't!'" Chronotrix retorted.
"We don't really have much of a choice!" said OV Trixie, meeting her younger counterpart's eyes. "Together, on three! One – "
"Two – " OS Trixie counted.
"Three! ACCESSING CHRONOSAPIEN SEQUENCE!"
Trixie didn't know wheather to call it fate, a miracle, or dumb luck, but both versions somehow managed to unlock their desired alien. As a result of the transformation, they mostly maintained their natural appearances, but their entire bodies were covered in golden plating with a winding sticking out of their backs. The only thing that wasn't metal was their hair, which seemed really weird. They looked like a couple of overgrown tin toys.
The Chronosapien-Trixies turned in unison and fired green beams of temporal energy from their hands, striking Eon in the chest. The villainous time traveler cried out in pain as he was steadily swallowed by their energies. The damage from the beams caused Eon's mask to crack, breaking off a shard of his visor to reveal his hate-filled green eye. Eon screamed again, this time in anger, before he exploded in a grand burst of emerald light.
The Chrononavigator clattered on the ground as the two Trixies de-transformed to their human shapes.
"It worked!" said OV Trixie, sounding surprised. Her jubilation was temporary, however, when she looked down at herself. "Wait...no! I'm still in the wrong me!"
Chronotrix raised her left hand, summoning her broken staff from who-knows-where. She gave the broken stick a wave and the crystal hourglass floated back on top of it, seamlessly fusing with the wood to restore its original appearance.
"Without Eon to anchor them," Chronotrix explained, "all the separate eras of time are progressively snapping back into place."
"Which means in a few seconds, none of this will have happened," OS Trixie surmised, "and we won't remember a thing."
"You really are getting quite good at this, young Trixie," said Chronotrix with a playful grin. "Pity you'll have to start over."
"It was good seeing you – I mean, me – again," OV Trixie said to her younger self.
"Yeah, me too...," OS Trixie smiled –
Trixie blinked.
She, Ben, and Gwen were sitting at the outdoor table at this new business called Mr. Smoothy's in a random no-name town in the middle of Idaho – because nothing ever happened in Idaho. Some mascot in a sentient cup costume had handed Ben a flier for their opening day, which naturally got Max's attention when he learned how…exotic the menu was. Ben immediately rejected the offer, but Max vetoed him, saying it would be a good experience.
So after patiently waiting for several minutes, Max walked out the building with four cups, looking very excited.
"This place is fantastic," said Max enthusiastically, handing them each a cup. "I would never have thought to combine strawberries with meal worms and anchovies. I should ask for the recipe."
"EW!" Ben gagged, having taken a sip without knowing what it was.
"Grandpa, gross!" Gwen complained, dumping her smoothie without tasting it.
Trixie, who had gulped down a good amount, hummed thoughtfully and said, "Hmm, not bad. Could use salt."
"You so are so disgusting," Gwen grimaced.
"Man, I wish some universe-destroying supervillain would show up to get me out of this," groaned Ben.
Just then, a green portal suddenly tore open in the space behind the Tennysons. A woman stepped out of the portal, which Ben and Gwen recognized from the Ben 10K adventure: It was future Trixie!
"Trixie, where's Chronotrix?" Trixie 10K asked her younger self urgently. "Fina and Ulti have formed an alliance and are creating an army of evil Trixies across the multiverse. Eunice and Nemi are gathering allies, but we need her help. The fate of the multiverse hangs in the balance!"
"…I just wanted a smoothie," said Trixie awkwardly.
I'm quite happy with how this turned out. It was mostly for humor, but this gives everyone an idea of what my version of Omniverse would be like if, by some miracle, I make it that far.
Next chapter: The Unnaturals