Chapter 5

You know, in hindsight, this may have been a bad idea. Maybe worse. Here I was facing Vilgax—one of the universe's most notorious warmongers to exist. And besides my instincts as a Saiyan wanting to fight him. I also was driven by my meta-knowledge/bias to beat his ass to a pulp. So yeah, this is a dumbass move.

But now that I already revealed myself. I believe what would be considered a bad/bat-shit crazy idea is the best idea to follow. Even if that means certain death approaches. I mean, I already died once. What's the point of fearing it when you can live to the fullest? Here and now, that's just what I'm gonna do.

Where was I last? Oh yeah. I had just punched Squidface, sending him dozens of feet away, only to screech to a halt by his weight alone.

Shaking his head once, he looks at me and says, "Pathetic insect. You have only spelled your d-" Again, I went at him in a flash.

I don't let up on the attack as punches continue throwing at Vilgax. One thing you don't want is for your opponent to have any room to breathe, so I hone my punches to his face for a time. Then, as he goes for a grapple, I maneuver past his large arm and send a powerful punch to his gut.

The punch landed, yet it felt like I hit a boulder that wouldn't break. Crap, I hit his cybernetic gut. I felt a tingle in the back of my mind, which wasn't a good kind of tingle. I quickly used my KI to dash away, which gave me a view of what almost resulted in a messy scene. Vilgax had smashed the ground, shaking the earth in its wake. If that had hit me, I might've been down long enough for a bad beatdown.

He then ran at me with a car in the air that was thrown at me. I didn't bother to try to catch it and only dodged. There was so much going on that time didn't matter as much.

Thanks to the Biological Clock perk, for what felt like dozens of minutes, I knew it was less than that.

Then, drones came out of nowhere, shooting their beams at me. I blast them in no time at all. Only to get sidelined by Vilgax. He smacked me into a wall that crumbled under the momentum, and I ended up inside a cafe that was already deserted.

Fuck…that's gonna hurt in the morning.

~ Stay alert. We got incoming. ~

Without missing a beat, I launch myself back up and shoot a KI blast through the dust that smokescreened the newly made hole. I followed quickly behind my blast and tackled with enough force to send Vilgax and me back into the street.

My symbiote, Eclipse, pins Vilgax's limbs to the ground with large tendrils coming out of my back. I give Vilgax the ceremonial 'welcome to earth!' one-two rapid style fist-to-face. But not before I headbutted him.

Another pair of drones rain on my parade. I give them a KI blast that splits into multiple shots that home in on the drones, leaving nothing but small debris. But that was enough distraction for Vilgax to get free and grab me by the arm. I was given the 'puny god' treatment* then and there. Swung into the ground and then lifted up, only to be swung again into the ground a good couple of times.

Then, I felt myself being thrown across the air. I tried to regain my balance, but I saw a skyscraper coming quickly before I could.

Shit.

~ This is gonna hurt. ~

And it did. Just like Heatblast, I was sent through building after building. Luckily, I stopped just a couple of feet from the next building. I checked myself. Nothing was out of order besides the aching arm that was almost pulled out of its socket, and my body felt like I had gone twelve rounds with Omni-Man. Ow. Eclipse reinforced it and healed any damage done after we finished assessing any other problems.

Phew. That sucked.

~ Let's not be grabbed and rag-dolled again. ~

Agreed.

I flew high to the roof of the building, where I almost crashed into, and looked where Squidface was. He wasn't where he threw me, so I looked to the sky and found him going away from me.

Oh c'mon. He really didn't try capturing me.

~ It seems the watch is a top priority to him. ~

We need to back them up.

~ I am ready. ~

We blasted off to where Stinkfly was escorting the Rust Bucket. I suppose he took out drones during the fight. As we closed in, Vilgax was falling right above their route. With my enhanced sight, I noticed that he was changing trajectory, and his aim became clear as I came to realize it.

I up my pace, "BEN!" But my warning came too late as Vilgax managed to grab Stinkfly's tail. They descend at a rapid pace. Stinkfly spits his nasty booger stuff at Vilgax, and he falls down to the ground.

With enough time bought, I get close to Vilgax and release a concentrated ball of KI at him, sending him even faster down to earth. He makes a deep crater, yet no wider than his size. He must've impacted the sewer system, or the force of my attack was just too much for the road; it reminded me of those old cartoon scenes.

I nearly laugh at the thought of it. But I kept my posture and rendezvoused back with Stinkfly.

"You good kid?" I asked in my mixed voice.

He looked a bit hesitant but replied with a nod, "Uh, yeah. Thanks for the back-up."

I smiled at his genuine gratitude, "Just glad I could help out."

He nodded again, "So, uh, who are you anyway? How do you know who I am?"

Ah, I guess he did hear, after all, "That's easy to explain, but it gets…a bit complicated after that." I wasn't sure how to explain myself to Ben and the other two. But if I can gain their trust, I sure as hell gonna tell them the truth…mostly.

"Do you know who that big guy is?" I asked, smoothly changing topics.

He shook his head slightly, "No idea. But called himself Vilgax. Do you know him?"

"Not personally, I went mano y mano only a couple of minutes ago. He's after something you have. Whatever it is, we have to move fast now." I said with as much authority I could muster.

Another tingle went off.

Ah, come on.

Twisting and bracing myself, I took a hit that rattled my bones in the arms I had blocked. Too much force was behind the attack, which sent me skidding across the ground onto my back.

"C-craaaaaap!" I yelled in surprise as I flipped to get to my feet and halted to a slow stop. Looking around, I saw that Stinkfly was missing.

I grimace, "Not good."

The Rust Bucket was still racing to the mountain at high speeds. So I shoot up to get a bird's eye to find Ben.

There!

~ Quickly! ~

I know!

Vilgax was holding Ben, snarling, "A child? The Omnitrix is in the hands of a child?!"

I didn't need to hear more. I sent a precision energy blast at Vilgax's shoulder, causing him to drop Ben to the ground.

"What?!" Vilgax said in confusion, but that didn't last long as he saw me and said with hate, "You."

Coming to a halt in front of Ben as I faced Vilgax, I said, "Sup squid face." nonchalantly.

"You dare stand in my way. For that, I will make your death slow." He dragged the last word as menacingly as possible. It was pretty menacing. But having faced jerks who used intimidation tactics more than I wanted to recount, it didn't faze me that much.

Cracking my neck to get rid of an annoying kink from my fall earlier, I looked at him with a cold stare. "Leave earth and the kid alone. Or things get…messy." The suit rippled with a growl that could be heard.

Vilgax isn't fazed. He only narrowed his eyes even more, if that was possible to believe, and said one word, "No." Then leaps at me. I let loose a barrage of energy blasts that bought me some time.

After two seconds of firing, I stopped the attack quickly, twisted around, and flew away as I picked up Ben. "We are outta here, kid," I said hastily as Ben let out a yelp.

Ben said as we got a good mile away in a few seconds, "Hey! Why didn't you fight him? You could beat him, right?"

I replied simply, "Not with you around me, kid. Plus, I don't want to cause more property damage than I have to." I wasn't sure if there was an equivalent of Marvel's Damage Control on this version of Earth, so I didn't want to risk causing so much trouble for locals to deal with more crap from me or Squidface and his goon squad of robots.

Ben gave me an unsure nod, "I guess that makes sense."

"He wants that thing on your wrist, so taking you far from the city will draw him away. In turn, keeping the people in the city safe from any more harm." I explained.

The kid gave a more sure and understanding nod, "Okay. So we draw him out and beat him and his robots. Then we can have some burgers after this."

I asked, "Burgers?"

He chuckled, "What? After this, definitely going to be eating a mountain of burgers."

I laugh at his straightforward plan, "Yeah, eating chocolate all day gets old."

His eyes widened. I swear there was a sparkle in them. "Chocolate all day?!" He exclaimed like the child he was.

Chuckling at his excitement, I explain, "It's what my symbiote…my suit needs to survive on. Well, there is another source it can eat."

Confused, he asked, "What's a symbiote?"

I mulled over how to explain and then said, "An alien partner made of goo stuff that basically upgrades you physically and mentally and fights alongside its host, which is me." I let the small bit of information sink into Ben's head.

Ben nodded, "So they eat chocolate. They seem nice. What's the other food they eat?"

I took a moment to think of how to explain to a 10-year-old about symbiotes needing a certain chemical, "Uh, well, I haven't let them have it because it's nasty and morally…bad, honestly."

"Come on! I fight aliens from space and all kinds of creepy bad guys. It can't be that bad." Ben retorted.

I sighed, shaking my head. "It's probably worse. But if you think you can handle it, okay?" I took a moment to brace myself, then said, "Brains."

Ben looked at me, confused and a little shocked, "What?"

"The other thing symbiotes eat, other than chocolate, is brains." I continued to speak as Ben looked a little flabbergasted, "It's not some zombie thing. It's the chemical inside both the brain and chocolate that keeps the symbiote from dying. And I have tons of chocolate; just don't ask me where or how I have it. Cause I'm not gonna tell." I stayed silent while flying further out from the city and heading for Rushmore.

Ben spoke, "That's pretty gross. But you've never-" I follow up with an answer, "I've never eaten someone's brain. That's just wrong and sounds disgusting to do."

Ben let out a sigh of relief, "Good, otherwise I'd have to kick butt."

I smirk, "You can try, kid, but you have a better chance fighting a mountain."

Then, before Ben could argue, I saw a blast coming out of nowhere from above on my six. Thanks to the 360 vision of Eclipse, I dodged just barely as it grazed my arm. Then another blast came, but I was ready. Dodging the blast was easy. Dodging a 15-foot alien squid that jumped at me simultaneously was more difficult.

Vilgax grabbed my foot, and we fell a dozen or more before sending a tendril at his face with enough force, causing him to lose his hold on me and fall down to earth.

Deja vu.

~ Is he going to do that to every flyer? ~

Probably.

I looked around and spotted a large area with nothing but plains going on and on.

There.

~ Nobody around to hurt. ~

Unless you count Vilgax.

~ Let's make it hurt. ~

After taking another dozen potshots from drones that were destroyed promptly, we landed. More drones were coming in from somewhere, probably wherever his ship was. I counted a small army of them. This is a good time to test out a move I wanted to try from Dragonball, but only it would be more effective than what was portrayed.

"Keep your distance and stay behind me," I warned Ben before taking a stance that made it look like I was charging up my attack.

Ben did as I asked. He was also fidgeting with his watch. Based on the cooldown between transformations and the fact that Vilgax de-transformed him not long ago, he probably has 5 minutes before going hero again.

I focused on gathering KI not only in my hands but also in various tendrils I had Eclipse slowly brought out of my back. They glowed with the gathering KI. This charge-up was taking time because how I wanted to use the energy on so many enemies closing in on us.

"Woah! What is that?." Ben asked.

Even if he couldn't feel KI, he could probably feel the pressure that was building up. Plus, the visible energy gathered in my hands and my extra limbs helped.

I slowly said so I didn't lose focus, "Something…epic."

The robots got close to about a klick away. I released the energy and shot from all limbs in different directions. The shots of energy blasts numbered around eight. Ben was about to say something until his eyes widened as each and every blast of energy dispersed into more than a dozen smaller streams of energy when they got to their targets halfway. Each bot was hit and penetrated like its armor was paper against a ballista. Each explodes in an epic show of fireworks.

I should use this move on 4th of July.

~ That would be relaxing to do. ~

Need some burgers, though. Oh, and some pizza.

~ Cold ones, too, but let's focus, please. ~

Right.

The small army of bots lay in the distance, burned and decimated to nothing. But something was off.

"Where's Vilgax?" I wondered aloud.

Then, almost like the Kool-Aid man, Vilgax came crashing in front of me. He landed so close that I was pushed back by the pressure he created when crashing. I stayed on my feet, but he was quick enough to punch me square in the chest and send me flying across the plain.

Not again.

~ Should've seen that coming. ~

The punch stung, and as I got back up, I felt something hit me in the middle of my back that hurt like hell. This sensation was similar to what I had to go through for the taser test in the military. But this was like a lightning bolt that struck my core. I yelled in pain as Eclipse screeched along with me as we fell down.

Back on the ground, I lay there with Eclipse convulsing out of the suit. Then he retreated back into my body, still feeling the pain through my entire body.

Fuuuuuuaaack.

~ W-urgh-we argh-must esc-ah! ~

Working rrrgh on it!

Gripping every bit of willpower, I could muster was beyond difficult while under the immense pain of being electrocuted. I focused on my KI to project outward and around myself. Effectively forming a shield of KI. It wasn't that well made, and I could feel it strain under continuous fire.

The strain of keeping it up and dealing with the aftereffects of that shock attack was almost too much. Barely managing to get up on one knee, I looked to see Ben, who was nowhere to be seen. All I could see was a giant ball of death rolling away at high speeds, leaving a dust trail in its wake.

I clenched my jaw in anger for being an idiot.

Of course, Vilgax has a counter for me. He's not exactly dumb enough not to come up with countermeasures. Damn it!

~ Haa, we need a plan. ~

After we catch a breath, smash these jackass drones, then we come up with a plan.

~ One that won't get us killed, I hope. ~

Don't worry. We have plenty of tricks to play.

~ Why don't I like the sound of that. ~

Look, it's either Squidface takes the watch and wretches havoc across the universe, or we kick his ass in the most badass way possible while saving the kid.

~ No third option? ~

…There is. It's just…a bit…if not…drastic.

~ Let's save whatever that is for universe-collapsing events. ~

Good call.

Getting up to my full height. Behind me, I see a cloaked drone hovering quite close to my barrier. It zapped at the shield as it uncloaked and then stopped, only to cloak again.

I unleashed a thin yet sharp tendril that sliced right through the drone without even giving it a second thought. Walking over to the destroyed drone, I inspected it and then absorbed its parts into a symbiote goo tendril. Eclipse studied the drone as I readied myself for more of those drones. But with all my senses heightened, there was nothing but the wind and burning destroyed drones in the distance.

Only one huh. It would've been more effective to just send more of those.

~ It would be too costly for him. ~

What'd you mean?

~ I've analyzed the drone. From the information we gathered from Vilgax's database via a hack of his ride. I can conclude that these drones utilize expensive and sensitive equipment and that each drone would be too valuable to send in groups. ~

Ha! I take back what I said. He is a dumbass.

~ He still took us down for a time. ~

…Point taken.

Having reequiped the suit, I pulled a dozen chocolate bars from P.D. and let Eclipse go wild on them. Now that we had our breather, we needed a plan to save Ben and kick Squidys' ass in the process.

A smile cracked from my face, without a doubt making me look like a madman.

Hey.

~ Hmm? ~

What do you think of the movie Terminator?

[A/N: *For those that somehow didn't get the reference, it's Avengers 2012 when Hulk swings Loki like a doll in Avengers tower]

P.S. I am writing this on the fly with little to no planning now. Winging it is the way.