"Oh, dammit! We just fought you like we did last week!"
Kevin sneered as he approached Diamondhead and StoneSaver.
"It's payback time, for turning me into a monster and piercing my hip!"
"You've always been a monster, Kevin. It's just that now, the ugly is out, too." Diamondhead declared.
"Denigrate me all you want, Ben. I'm still 10 times better than you! I've got all your powers, plus my own! I'm Kevin 11!"
Kevin fired shrapnel from his diamond arm. Diamondhead bounced them off his body then stumbled backwards as Kevin spat viscous Sting substance all over his face.
"Yuck! Gwen's right, this stuff is disgusting!"
"I've told you many times." Says StoneSaver-Hayden.
Kevin and Diamondhead both rushed at each other when suddenly a red light fell from the sky, freezing them in place and carrying them off somewhere.
Gwen, Max and Hope climbed out of the overturned Rust Bucket.
"Ben? Hayden?"
StoneSaver had suddenly found himself alone in a dark room.
"Oh damn, I forgot about that." He murmured, looking around.
"Introducing our new challengers from planet Earth!"
The lights suddenly come on and StoneSaver finds himself in some kind of fighting ring with a crowd of cheering aliens.
He suddenly leapt out of the way as a giant robot with blades for hands appeared and swung one of its blades.
"Hmm. The technology must be pretty advanced. It's work for the little guy." Said StoneSaver- continuing to dodge before jumping, transforming into Grey Matter to land on the robot's head. Then he opened a trapdoor to find his circuitry. "Now I'm going to give you a little lobotomy."
He began to sort out the wires.
"The main wire to the neural processor should be... There!"
He grabbed a red wire and bit it. The robot contorted for a moment before falling to the ground. Grey Matter came out and he transformed back into Hayden.
"Easy."
The walls suddenly lowered, revealing Ben and Kevin.
"You!" Ben shouted, pointing at Kevin.
"What's going on with you, am I being sent to this weird place?" Kevin asked, charging at Ben.
"I had nothing to do with it!" said Ben.
"If you didn't do it, who did?" asked Kevin.
He was about to hit him again, but before he could, all three were teleported away again.
"Okay, I really don't like this," said Ben.
Three robot guards stepped between them. They raised their sticks and thrust them into their chests, leaving behind some kind of device.
"Hey, hands off!" Kevin roared, ready to strike the guard. The guard pressed a button on his wrist and an electric shock went through all three of them.
"Okay, don't do that again." Hayden grimaced, then noticed the scenery through the window. "Uh, guys."
Ben and Kevin also looked out the window as they saw the moon pass by and the earth in the distance.
"I think we've been sent into space." Hayden declared.
"We've got to find a way to get off this ship and go home!" Ben exclaimed.
"This is your home now. It's impossible to get away."
They looked around to see a group of aliens of all different sizes and species.
"We've all been torn from our home worlds and forced to fight for our lives in order to entertain the galaxy."
Kevin glared at Ben.
"This is all your fault!"
"How can it be my fault?!" Ben exclaimed.
"I don't know... it just is!" Said Kevin.
"Let it go, Ben." Said Hayden catching their attention as he stared into space, as he does every night with the telescope. "Kevin's looking for someone to blame, and you're the perfect scapegoat for him, because just like when he absorbed the energy from the watch, he can't tell himself it's his fault. He's too immature to admit he's wrong... he doesn't even recognize how lucky he is to have his mother still with him..."
Kevin was about to hit the teenager, but when he saw Hayden's reflection in the window, he stopped. He could see in her eyes something he'd seen all too often... the eyes of a child suffering from the absence of a parent.
Then he lowered his fist and looked at the ground; for the first time, he felt as if someone understood him.
A light bulb suddenly descended from the ceiling and lit up.
"It's feeding time!"
A bench and a row of trays slid out of the wall and all the aliens sat down in front of a tray. The ceiling above the trays opened up and purple mud dripped onto the trays.
The aliens sat down and began to eat. Ben looked down at his mud-filled tray and grimaced.
"Ugh, thanks, I had purple sludge for lunch."
"You should eat before Technorg claims his offering." Says an alien sitting next to him.
"Who's Technorg?" Hayden asked.
At that moment, the ground began to tremble. All the aliens rose from the bench and knelt as a tall alien with a mace for a hand entered the room.
"The reigning champion! You'd better show him some respect."
Ben knelt as Kevin and Hayden watched Technorg pick one up, pour the mud into his mouth and continue the line.
Kevin grinned and slid his XLR8 tail forward, trying to flip one of the trays in Technorg's face when Hayden glared at him.
"You're such a kid. You could have just done like Chambers in Undisputed 2." he said.
"Like who in what?" Kevin asked.
"Fucking space-time shift..."
"Who did this?!" Technorg shouted.
"It was him!" shouted Kevin, pointing at Ben.
"What did I do?! I don't even have a tail!" Said Ben.
"So..." Kevin began.
"Don't make him fall for that kind of joke just yet." Hayden said.
The aliens watched the three of them bickering, especially Kevin and Hayden.
"Don't tell me what to do!" shouted Kevin.
"Then stop acting like a child!
"You know what the kid's telling you, asshole?!"
"You know what the asshole's telling you?!"
"HE SAID: FUCK YOU!" Kevin and Hayden shouted.
Suddenly, they were teleported again, this time into a dark room where robot guards immediately immobilized them. In front of them was a red window with a figure standing before them.
"I am Slix Vigma. This is the Megacruiser." Said the figure. "Everything on this ship belongs to me, including you."
Kevin sniffed.
"I don't belong to anyone, Slix..."
He was silenced by a controlled shock.
"I talk, you listen. These eyes see everything on this ship, and these hands control everything on this ship. And I've decided that your relationship will make you an entertaining team in the arena!" Says Slix Vigma.
"A team?" Ben asked.
"With them?" Hayden asked.
The guards locked a pair of energy cuffs around their legs.
"No! I'm not walking around tied to those losers!" Kevin shouted.
"You took the words right out of my mouth, freak!" Ben shouted.
"Uh... remind me who gave you a hand job Kevin?" Hayden said.
All three were silenced by a controlled shock.
"Your fates are now linked. If one of you should die, the chains will ensure that the others die too... Now, your next opponent awaits!" Slix Vigma said, then they were teleported again.
They looked up to see that they were back in the ring with Technorg charging towards them.
"There's only room for one champion here, me!"
Hayden, Ben and Kevin all tried to run in different directions, but their chains stopped them. Technorg grabbed them and tackled them to the ground, before rising brilliantly to the cheers of the crowd.
"Nice move, idiot!" Said Kevin.
"Let it go, Kev. It's both our problems." Says Ben.
"You two are impossible..." Hayden moaned.
Technorg grabbed them by the chains and began swinging them like a lasso before throwing them against a wall.
"I can't do anything with you two, deadweights!" Kevin growled as he grabbed Ben and Hayden, about to crush them when he was dissuaded by a controlled shock.
"Remember that speech about how our fates are now linked?! That was only two minutes ago!" Ben exclaimed.
"We're moving." Hayden shouted.
Ben and Kevin looked up and quickly moved out of the way as Technorg crashed to the ground with his mace. Kevin and Hayden began to run, literally dragging Ben with them.
"I told you to move!" Hayden exclaimed, pulling Ben to his feet. "Go that way and pull on the chain.
Ben turned to Technorg and understood. He smiled as the two boys pulled on the chains and used them as a tripwire to trip Technorg and send him flying at Kevin.
"Hey! You did that on purpose!" Kevin exclaimed, throwing Technorg away from him.
"Of course." Ben smiled.
The crowd began to boo. Technorg stood up and looked around. "Booing?! No one is booing Technorg! Technorg is the champion!"
"Let's put some distance between us and him while he's distracted." Said Ben.
He and Hayden started to run, but Kevin pulled them back.
"You're not my boss, Ben!"
"Damn it, Kevin! If we want to stay alive, we have to work together!" Hayden exclaimed.
"Why should I work with you losers? You're both useless! I'll take care of him myself." Said Kevin as he began to bombard Technorg with crystals and Stinkfly's goo.
This seemed to anger Technorg as he roared towards them and began to slowly approach.
"You were saying...?" Ben asked.
Kevin growled and hit Technorg with a jet of fire, but that didn't seem to work either.
Hayden suddenly grabbed Ben's shoulder.
"Hey, Ben. Look."
He pointed to a stray flame that fell into a puddle of goo, causing a small explosion.
"That's it!" Ben exclaimed, turning to Kevin. "Mix Stinkfly's goo with Heatblast fireballs!"
"Why?"
"Just do it, you won't be disappointed." Hayden said.
Kevin hurled a river of goo at Technorg, spraying him with it and firing a column of fire. The goo exploded, sending Technorg to the ground.
"Cool." Kevin smiled.
"If you use your powers in combination... they make up for not having their full power!" Said Ben.
Ben and Hayden jumped on Kevin's back.
"Ok, for example: the speed of XLR8, plus the strength of Four Arms, plus the invulnerability of Diamondhead, how does that sound?!" Ben asked.
"Quite a punch!" Kevin smiled.
Technorg stood up and charged them. Kevin charged too, and the two clashed in the middle. Technorg smiled triumphantly, but his smile fell with his sword arm.
Before he could react, Kevin was back in front of him and finished him off with a punch to the face.
The crowd stood stunned for a moment before bursting into cheers.
"Oh yes! It's true! He's the best?!" Kevin shouted, raising his arms in triumph.
"You're so pathetic." Ben muttered.
"Hey, let him enjoy the fame. And then you did when the press photographed you after you gave Hex his first handjob." Said Hayden.
Suddenly, a hologram of Slix Vigma appeared before them.
"Now finish him off!"
"With pleasure," said Kevin as he began to approach the unconscious Technorg.
"Kevin, no!" Ben exclaimed, but Kevin ignored him.
Kevin raised his fist, ready to deliver the final blow.
"Do you really want to be this big guy? You're going to play Slix's game. Do you really want to become his new favorite toy?" Hayden asked.
Kevin paused.
"All you'll be by doing what this torturer says is a slave. Just like every other gladiator here." Hayden insisted.
You could almost hear the wheels turning in Kevin's head. Slowly, he lowered his fist.
Slix Vigma didn't seem pleased with this news.
"Mercy? What a new concept." He said sarcastically. "Get ready for galactic hyperjump! I need to recruit some new blood worthy of our champions."
As they entered the fighters' hall, all the aliens dropped to their knees, welcoming the new champions.
"It's nice to finally have some respect around here!" Kevin declared.
They stopped as Technorg approached them, now with a new mace arm. Kevin got into fighting stance, but to their surprise, Technorg knelt before them, especially Hayden, holding out a tray of slop.
"You defeated me, then spared my life. Now you're my master."
"Yeah, that was my idea. You're welcome." Said Kevin, taking the tray and pouring the slop into his mouth.
"Technorg. I don't want to be your master, I just want me and Ben back on Earth." Said Hayden to Technorg.
"What about me?" Kevin asked.
"Seeing as you seem to like it here, I thought you might want to stay." Hayden retorted, looking at Kevin with an amused smile.
"Screw you."
Technorg glanced behind him to see that the robot guards were still standing at the door.
"Even if you could free yourself from the chains and escape, this ship would soon be traveling to a new galaxy." He said.
"There must be a way to access the guards' controls." Says Ben.
"We've all tried. None of us is powerful enough to overtake them!" Technorg declared.
Ben smiled.
"Maybe not alone, but if we all work together..."
Ben was sitting in a corner of the room. Ben looked at Technorg and winked. Technorg elbowed the alien sitting next to him, who patted Kevin on the back. Kevin let out a small cough that alerted Hayden sitting next to him.
"Ugh! I can't take this anymore!" Hayden suddenly shouted. "I'm sick of this shitty ship! With these stupid alien gladiators! And especially of being stuck to you!"
"You think I want to stay with a nerd like you?!" Kevin shouted back at her.
"Oh, nice words from a guy who's always blaming everyone else!" Hayden shouted back at him.
"That's it!" Kevin shouted, tossing a flame into the air. Hayden activated his Omnitrix and transformed into SnakeEyes.
"Stop them! They're out of control!" Technorg shouted.
All the aliens gathered around Kevin, SnakeEyes-Hayden and Technorg. The guards immediately pressed the controlled shock button. The controlled shock passed through the collars as usual, but this time they spat out the shock.
"The paralyzing snitches. They're deactivated!"
One of the guards floated up to them and Grey Matter-Ben appeared, holding a pair of wires.
"All it takes is a short circuit and little Grey Matter."
"Ah, pull yourself together, little one. A monkey could have done what you did." Said Kevin.
"Then why didn't you?" Grey Matter-Ben scoffed.
"Ladies. Let's go home now." Said SnakeEyes before neutralizing the guards with the speed and strength of this Alien.
"Freedom ! Roared Technorg as he and all the aliens began beating up all the guards in sight.
"Come on!" Said Grey Matter.
"Just when I'm starting to enjoy myself." Kevin muttered.
"You'll have plenty of time to mess things up once we get to Earth. And the best part is, if you do this while being discreet, we might never run into each other again." SnakeEyes-Hayden retorted.
They enter Slix Vigma's private quarters, high up in the tower overlooking the arena.
"The emergency escape pod controls should be somewhere. Slix said he controlled everything on this ship from here..." Grey Matter-Ben declared.
"Actually, that's not quite true. What was said was that these hands control everything on this ship. Including them."
Holograms of Slix Vigma appeared before them as a group of guards entered the room.
"I told you, these eyes see everything, and everyone else will see everything as well. But your disappearance won't be the first act, theirs."
The screens flashed, showing the alien gladiators lowered into a pit filled with sharp-toothed purple aliens.
"If we're going to die." Said Grey Matter-Ben.
"We're going to fight!" Said Kevin.
"It's nice to see you finally agree on something." Said SnakeEyes-Hayden.
Kevin began to strike at the guards, while SnakeEyes used this form's speed, strength and wrist tentacles to destroy the guards that Tetard-Grey-Ben and Kevin were ignoring.
Grey Matter-Ben jumped around, frying the guards' circuits. They quickly got rid of them.
"Great teamwork!" Grey Matter-Ben declared.
"If you try to hug me, you're going to get hit." said Kevin.
Ben's time was now up, as more and more guards began to stream into the room.
They rushed to the balcony. Kevin jumped up to the platform Slix was standing on and held it over his head.
"What do you think of that?"
"Calm down! We still have to force him to open the escape pods!" Said Ben.
"I'm done listening to you!" Kevin shouted, throwing Slix into the ring below.
"This is not part of the show. I order you to stop them." Said Slix, starting to panic and spark as the guards fell to the ground.
"Wait a minute, of course!" Ben exclaimed.
Kevin jumped into the arena, taking Ben and SnakeEyes-Hayden with him.
Kevin lifted Slix, ready to throw him into the pit.
"Kevin, wait!"
Kevin ignored him. He was about to throw, when there was a flash of green. "What?"
"I said, wait!" Said Hayden having changed into Upgrade to possess the Slix body.
Kevin put down Slix-Upgrade-Hayden.
"How did you do it?"
Slix-Upgrade-Hayden dropped his robe to reveal he was a floating robot.
"This guy doesn't just use the control console, he is the control console! And now I control everything on this ship! He might rebel a bit, but you should know he's going to shit."
"That's for sure." Says Kevin, recalling their interaction on the streetcar. "As long as I'm more attached to you, I'm fine with it." Said Kevin as he tossed the chain.
"Launching an intergalactic hypersault."
"Hey! I didn't throw that!" Said Slix-Upgrade-Hayden as he called up the control panel and began entering commands. "Oh, crap. I can't get around it!"
"You don't have as much control over me as you thought." Said Slix Vigma as he started to pull Ugrade off him when Technorg hit him on the head so Upgrade-Hayden could regain control.
"Thanks, he's tougher than I thought."
"We must reach the escape pods before we take off for the next galaxy!" declared Technorg.
Slix-Upgrade-Hayden pressed a button and teleported them all into the escape pod chamber where Kevin and Ben were already there, trying to break through one of the doors.
"Need a hand? Or six?" asked Slix-Upgrade-Hayden, extending four tentacles and inserting them into the control panels.
All the doors around the room opened onto the escape capsules.
"All of you, take the escape pods back to your home planets!" said Slix-Upgrade-Hayden.
The aliens did as he said and climbed into the escaped capsules and exploded out of the ship.
"You too, Technorg." Said Hayden as he pushed Technorg toward one of the remaining capsules.
"No! My life belongs to you!" Said Technorg.
"No, it's yours, my friend. I saved you so you'd be free to live longer. So go home." Said Slix-Upgrade-Hayden, pushing him into the pod. "Go on, now!"
Once Technorg was gone, Upgrade-Hayden withdrew from Slix and became SnakeEyes again.
"Miserable human vermin... No one controls Slix Vigma! No one! Not even the World Destroyer!" Slix shouted, wanting to take on SnakeEyes-Hayden.
Suddenly, a shard of crystal pierces Slix through the chest. Ben looks up to see Kevin holding a skewered Slix Vigma.
"Kevin? Did you save his life?" Ben asked.
"Of course I did. Why do you think I wasted all my time helping all those a losers?" Said Kevin, tossing Slix aside. "I just wanted the pleasure of killing you myself."
"And you won't have that pleasure." SnakeEyes-Hayden retorted before Kevin felt faint until he collapsed as a tentacle entered his wrist.
"You killed him?" Ben asked, shocked.
"No, he's only asleep. He may be a big jerk at this point in his life, but I'm sure he still has a chance to be a good person." SnakeEyes-Hayden replied. "Now let's get out of here."
SnakeEyes-Hayden and Ben then rushed to the last pod and took off as the ship jumped into hyperspace.
The pod landed on the same grassy field from which it had started, and Hayden and Ben stumbled out of it.
"Ben!" Max exclaimed.
"Hayden!" Hope shouted, throwing her arms around him.
Hayden was surprised at first but then returned the embrace, when they broke the embrace they looked away for a second before smiling awkwardly at each other, blushing slightly.
Then she realized what she was doing and immediately pulled away, her face red as a tomato.
"I... uh... we were very worried about you... and Ben too."
"Where's Kevin?" Gwen asked.
"He wasn't behaving, so we had to put him in the corner" Declared Ben as he and Hayden looked at each other and smiled.