I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 46: Ghost of a Chance Part Two
Omnitrix City Suburbs; March 21st, 2024; 2:26PM
After detailing Albedo on the history of Zs'kayer and how he terrorized a young ten-year-old Ben and Gwen during their first summer trip, something the technopath had only heard in brief stories from the two, Cooper agreed to step out of his Overwatch position temporarily to help track her down; being that he was the only one who knew her as well as Ben might. He allowed his lollipop to melt on his tongue as he stuffed his hands in his pants pockets, his purple long-sleeved t-shirt was embedded with a glowing chest piece in the center of his torso. Although he was copying one of his favorite comic-book characters, he liked to think of himself as a more original 'ironman' although, the exiled Galvan had no idea what that meant.
"With Ben off world, what would Ghostfreak want most after already gaining a suitable host?" Cooper questioned with emphasis, from what he could tell, Gwendolyn was more than powerful enough now to fulfill his previous goals, which was gaining the strength of the original ten alien-heroes Ben utilized when he first encountered the Ectonurite.
"Wasn't his first objective to darken the Earth with enough energy to rule indefinitely?" Albedo interjected, stroking his silver goatee.
Cooper took the treat from between his lips and waved it around, "Gwendolyn has been out of practice for years, she's not exactly capable of taking over the world anymore… at least not without her talismans," and that's when the epiphany hit them like a freight train, or at least it had to be their best guess. They would never actually guess the true objective without more clues.
"The Tower!" they both shouted simultaneously. The blonde technopath summoned a holographic keyboard from a gauntlet that wasn't even visible on his forearm. "The Alpha Rune and her Charms are the only things capable of empowering her enough to quote 'darken' the entire planet, at least without Corrodium." He entered in their coordinates which locked on and fired a bright blue beam of energy from a satellite in orbit, dematerializing them both as faster than light particles, firing down subsequently on Cooper's designated receiving location.
…
Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; March 21st, 2024; 2:30PM
Albedo and Cooper rematerialized within the towers most secure facility, behind fortified security systems including motion detectors, laser arrays, and a level fourteen Plumber issued plasma cage. On a pedestal before them were six stone carved Charms embedded into it behind a polycarbonate glass case along with the Staff of Ages, and the Alpha Rune; normally, the only way to retrieve them would be to use highly advanced sorcery to summon them through space. Gwendolyn had several mystically charged drawers and armoires that could summon them within her loft however, the Ectonurite couldn't possibly access them. With Zs'kayer not totally in tune with Gwendolyn's abilities and her lack of training these last few years, he would need to retrieve them manually, if he were to retrieve them at all.
Cooper's eyes flashed bright turquoise with neon energy surging through the veins around his pupils, doing a quick scan of the room, accessing the security system with his mind before nodding toward Albedo, "Nobodies been in or out in the last few hours, wherever Zs'kayer teleported away to, it wasn't here…" he surmised as his eyes returned to normal.
Albedo's eyes widened with a sudden epiphany, looking back at the technopath who seemed confused, "You don't suppose that perhaps this Ectonurite knows of a way to empower a mystically inclined host besides these charms?"
"Hey, I'm an Earth-bound-boy, you're the hyper-intelligent alien from another Galaxy; how could Ghostfreak amp himself up without this stuff," he gestured behind him to the still secured Charms and artifacts, brushing some of his blonde hair behind his ears, "Especially from inside of a human host?"
Albedo gasped, it was the first time he'd heard such an expression of surprise from the Galvan, rarely being caught off guard with an intelligence such as his, "There's one source of darkness so powerful that only an Ectonurite and its host could possibly survive. It resides on Anur Vladius a few star systems away, it blankets the planet in such intense waves of anti-light almost no life can survive," even he seemed frightened a bit by the thought.
Cooper gave it some thought, doing a few calculations in his head, "What I'm hearing is that whatever is so dangerous about this object that it's made the entire planet's atmosphere toxic… right?"
"Yes, I suppose so, however it's not a natural gas of any sort; it's essence eats literally through almost any material including flesh," Albedo warned, folding his arms across his chest while watching the technopaths eyes illuminate once again.
Cooper double tapped the glowing chest-piece embedded in the center of his torso just beneath his shirt, feeling a cool metallic substance spreading across his body; purple nano-bots melded together on a microscopic level forming golden-trimmed armor which spread down over his legs and head. "This is my newest armor, completely nanotech, and it's made from of the densest materials in the Milky Way," Cooper boasted as a transparent force shield covered his face sealing it off but allowing his head to still be visible. "If we do this quickly, we should be able to pull it off. Do you have any transformations that can keep up?"
Albedo raised his hand, twisting the dial on his Ultimatrix, "Yes, though I have very few forms that can survive the nature of this world, I believe it will suffice. Unlike Azmuth, I paid more attention to the DNA insertion process, I would never allow a sentient species to be trapped in my Codon Stream," the hologram of Ghostfreak appeared before the snow-haired Galvan's eyes before slapping it down, exploding in a flash of crimson light.
A ghostly white phantom appeared in his place, without legs it floated a foot off the ground staring intently at Cooper through its singular, purple-veined eye, "Alright," he hissed through the Ectonurite's natural voice, "Can your teleportation array make it all the way to the Anur System?"
Cooper chuckled, pulling up a hologram from his gauntlet with a few simple taps, "It looks like Zs'kayer doesn't really know or care about the fact that I can still track Gwendolyn's emergency beacon app…" as he began triangulating her coordinates, Albedo spoke up. I wonder if he even knows what a cellphone is?"
"Even out in deep-space?"
Cooper scoffed, "Of course, I may not be able to talk to him, but… it looks like Ben is still on his way to Ekoplekton and man is he moving fast…" tapping away for only a few more seconds, the ghostly alien floated behind him to look at the screen with his own eye, "And… Yep! Gwendolyn is exactly where we thought she'd be. Though the signal is shotty I should be able to get us within a few miles of her."
"We must hurry," Negative Ghostfreak exclaimed with a raspy hiss, "The longer she remains possessed the more permanent the hold will become," Cooper nodded in understanding, the stakes were high as he fiddled with the keyboard projected from his gauntlet just a bit more.
"Anur Vladias, here we come," a second later a thick beam of energy shot through the ceiling and struck them, doing no damage to the building but, dematerializing their bodies and transporting them off world.
…
Anur Vladias; March 21st, 2024; 2:30PM
A mysterious figure turned her head watching the tachyonic-particles shoot through the darkened atmosphere cutting through the purple clouds riddled with bright-magenta strikes of lightning. The figure gave a long sigh watching her breath billow out from her lips through the cold air, she turned around to watch the beam strike the ground dropping two unfamiliar figures, one humanoid and one phantom-like creature she had to assume was one of the natives. With a curious smirk she threw up a burgundy hood over her raven-black hair and walked off the plateau she'd been sitting on, a sudden violet aura swam around her figure as she sauntered off.
Cooper and Negative Ghostfreak immediately glanced around at the surrounding deserted area, clouds of toxic dust rolled over the terrain around them blown by high winds. "How far are we from her location?" the Ectonurite asked aloud, still scanning their surroundings with his one good eye.
The technopath sighed beneath the transparent energy helmet around his head, looking down at his gauntlet which was showing nothing but static on his radar, "I don't know, I'll switch to infrared and scan for body-heat signatures; even with an alien ghost possessing her, Gwendolyn should still be giving off some sort of heat."
"Should?" Negative Ghostfreak muttered apprehensively.
Cooper continued his calculations internally, looking up from his gauntlet to scan the area as he answered, "Well, the atmospheric readings are as crappy as you said so, let's just hope she's within a ten-mile radius," the transparent energy within his faceplate began scanning the foggy plain, he narrowed his eyes as a figure approached in the distance. "That's weird, I'm getting a reading already… is that her?"
Negative Ghostfreak thinned out the single eye over his torso just above the Ultimatrix, "Who?"
Cooper took a few steps forward, cracking the small pebbles at his feet with his armored boots, "That," he stated firmly pointing with his index finger as a shadowy figure which, for Albedo, glowed with a purple luminescence. The technopath only saw the infrared energy approaching at a slow walking pace until, he blinked and suddenly the signature was gone.
"Where did it-"
Coop was interrupted when a dainty glowing finger tapped him on the shoulder, "Hey boys, looking for directions?" a female voice spoke up as he turned, the mysterious woman cold-clocked the technopath in the nose only protected by his energy faceplate. Surprisingly, he was sent ten-feet through the air landing onto his back, skating across the cold ground for a few more feet.
Negative Ghostfreak was shocked to find a woman made entirely of swirling lilac-magenta energy, other than the cloak over her shoulders, she was completely nude spite her glowing features hiding any inappropriate parts from sight. Her long mane of hair was pure energy flowing to a single point hanging down almost to her ankles. Cooper sat up and aimed his fist at her with his other hand placed firmly over his forearm, without hesitation he fired an ionic blast of blue energy at the attacker; he wasn't expecting her to throw out an opened palm stopping the blast with her bare hand. Albedo's one eye went wide when she dashed forwards with incredible speed only barely phasing through her assault at the last possible second, causing her to swing through him and slide forth to a stop behind him.
Propulsion from his back and behind his legs brought Cooper back to his feet effortlessly; Negative Ghostfreak opened his torso on command hiding the Ultimatrix beneath his 'skin' folds before firing a blast of violet dark-matter energy from within his own body. The woman countered with a solid shield of hot-pink energy she manifested from nowhere with one hand; Cooper slowly sidestepped to stand next to him as Albedo stopped the fruitless effort, blasting at her clearly had no effect.
"Why don't you just calm down and tell us what you're doing here?" Cooper negotiated a cease fire which prompted her to slowly lower her still glowing arms down to her side, dispersing the shield.
"Me?" she scoffed in response, "I've been stuck on this dried-out planet for two years now; I've never seen another living thing out here that hasn't immediately tried to eat me," she folded her arms over her bare chest, leaning back on her right leg as if waiting for an answer to a question she hadn't directly asked.
Negative Ghostfreak and Cooper glanced to one another with shocked expressions; the former tucking away his stripped back-and-white tentacles while the latter lowered his own gauntlet down, "We didn't know that anything could live on this planet for that long, actually I've never seen any species like you in the Universe before."
Albedo reached out and slapped the dial on his chest, transforming with an explosion of crimson light, appearing from the energy as Negative Frankenstrike, a species with a slightly larger brain capacity, "She appears to be a race of energy beings from the Andromeda Galaxy, they were known as Anodites until they fled their planet before a cataclysmic meteor strike centuries ago, correct?"
She turned her head to the right, looking away from them both, "I wouldn't know, smart guy; I never even saw my home planet, I'm only thirty-years-old," even with a somber tone she still carried an abrasive attitude.
"Alright, maybe we got off on the wrong foot; my name is Cooper and I'm from Earth," the technopath lifted and held out his right hand as a gesture for her to shake.
She instead glanced back over at Negative Frankenstrike, raising her brow once she noticed the crimson hourglass symbol still on his chest even after changing his form, "You some kind of shapeshifting Plumber?" recognizing the symbol for intergalactic peace.
"Something like that, I'm Albedo of the Galvan; the device on my chest allows me to alter my DNA at will," he gestured to the Ultimatrix on his torso glowing crimson.
"Well, I wouldn't change into any species that comes from outside of the Anur-system; this planet will shrivel you into a very dead raisin in minutes," she looked back over to Cooper whom kept his hand out for her to return the gesture. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, lightly shaking for a second or two before returning their second gesture, "You can call me Sunny." The Galvan couldn't take his eyes off the young woman, her energy form was elegant yet, powerful though he wasn't entirely over his feelings for Hope… this new woman was suddenly making him feel things he hadn't felt in over five-years since before his death.
"It's nice to meet you Sunny but, we obviously don't have as much time to spare as you might; we're looking for a friend who was possessed by an Ectonurite," Cooper expressed the urgency of their mission through his tone of voice, looking back to his gauntlet with another attempt to scan their radius for signs of life.
Albedo intervened with his deepened voice, clearing his throat first before speaking, "W-We need to find a source of great power… perhaps with all your time here you may know where we can find it before he does?"
Sunny raised a brow, tapping her chin slowly with her index finger, "Its gotta be the glowing weapon that's stabbing the skeleton at the base of the mountain… ya know, surrounded by all the other skeletons?" she made a gesture with her hand assuming they must know what she was talking about, "Right, sorry, I've been alone for a long time… I'll just show you guys."
She turned on her heels and started walking in the opposite direction, prompting the two men to follow suite behind her, "How long of a walk is it?" Cooper questioned, looking now at the battery levels slowly being depleted from his armor at a faster rate than it ever would on Earth.
Sunny turned her head over her shoulder as she walked, "Uh… maybe a few hours? Give or take, depends on if we run into one of the tentacle-things that live underground," she deadpanned while pointing to the ground casually.
"Great…" Cooper gulped and dispersed the hologram from his gauntlet, "Good to know."
After thirty or forty minutes of walking in a straight line, the mountain range shortened in proximity from over the horizon to only a few miles ahead of them. With their destination not far, all was looking smooth for the time being, "So, why is it that you've been trapped on this world for so long, I was under the impression that Anodites can travel through space without the need to breathe air and at faster than light speeds I might add."
Sunny gave a long-exasperated sigh, reaching behind her head and holding her hands on the back of her neck, "I was being chased by a sentient android called a Synthroid… their whole species revolves around using other species as slaves to further their tech; Nosedeenians are the most common, being used as batteries."
Negative Frankenstrike realized where she was going with this, "I've heard of these Synthroids as well, they were created and given life by the Techadonian weapon-masters."
"Right, they wanted to replace a few dozen Nosedeenians with just little ol' me?! Well I wasn't gonna let myself get enslaved so, I ran for it and tried to hide on this random planet," she narrowed her eyes, metaphorically kicking herself as she recalled exactly what happened, "Anyway, by the time the Synthroid realized it wouldn't survive an expedition on this world and moved on, I was too weak to make it off world… I've been surviving off whatever energy I can find around here." As they passed a river of toxic purple energy that eroded the ground at its edges and steamed with malignant puss, she continued, "Heat, electricity, any Corrodium radiation I come across… that ion blast you shot me with earlier tasted pretty good," she joked.
"So, you eat energy?" Cooper asked nonchalantly.
"Not usually but, food doesn't grow on this planet and any life I could kill and eat is toxically mutated by all the Corrodium reserves across the planet," she finished with another long sigh, "So, I improvise."
Albedo was silently impressed, much like himself she was a survivor, doing whatever it takes to continue living, "I assume your initial plan was to loot our belongings, if any, to continue to sustain yourself, correct?" Negative Frankenstrike folded his arms across his bulky torso.
"Clever boy, I saw you guys teleport in with some sort of tech so, if it turned out you were stranded here too… well that's probably what I would have done," Sunny chided her answer back with curved smirk turning to look over her shoulder at them again, "You guys don't seem stranded, are you?"
"Of course not," Cooper tried his best to be subtle returning his gaze back to his gauntlet where the readings from his teleporter array in orbit around the Earth confirmed his suspicion, "I mean, of course not!" he said more confidently.
"Good, well, I'm going to change forms to conserve my energy, if that's alright?" Sunny asked sarcastically, proceeding to do so without waiting for either of their approval. From beneath her layer of magenta glowing energy a Caucasian skin-tone slowly melded over it revealing a fit woman with black eyes, healthy pink lips, and long, straight raven black hair with violet died tips. Unlike her energy form, she was dressed in a purple crop-top exposing her midriff and pants that appeared to be some sort of dark spandex.
What shocked the two was her face and outward appearance, they continued walking the entire time but, were stunned and stopped when they saw her look back at them with a confused expression, "What? I manifested clothes, didn't I?" she pulled on her top to make sure it was there for a moment, questioning her own powers.
"Are you positive you haven't run into our possessed friend out here before meeting us?" Albedo suggested.
Sunny scoffed and continued walking, shaking her head, "I'm pretty positive that you two are the only living things that walk and talk like me that I've seen in two years…" she shrugged it off still unsure what the problem was, not that she really cared.
Cooper and Albedo took the small distance between themselves and their new acquaintance to whisper to one another, "Am I going nuts or does she look exactly like Gwen with a different color scheme?"
"It's to my understanding that Anodites of her purported age cannot change their appearance at will and rely on their natural genetics for their base forms," Negative Frankenstrike was trying to whisper but, it didn't take very well with that form as it was obvious that Sunny heard them.
"Can you boys share with the group? Who is it that you think I look like? One of your girlfriends?" she said the last part with a snicker, giggling over her shoulder as she continued to walk.
"N-No!" Albedo announced with an oddly flustered shout, "Ahem, I mean the woman we're looking for, you share a strong resemblance to her."
Cooper snapped his fingers in realization, "I know, did you ever meet your Grandfather?"
"No… I mean Grandma told me stories about how he was some great 'hero' and Plumber officer but, he was only on the planet we were staying on long enough to conceive my mother… what does that matter?" Sunny stopped in her tracks, actually realizing what they were implying just as she finished her sentence, "You don't honestly believe this chick is, like, a long lost relative of mine? Do you?" she started laughing nervously before quickly looking to the ground and continuing a confident strut.
Negative Frankenstrike shrugged his heavy shoulders, gesturing outward to her back still facing away from them, "Maxwell Tennyson was a very well-traveled Plumber and his wife on Earth passed away many years before he retired from active duty."
Cooper interjected, "Yea, and you're the perfect age since Ben and Gwen are both twenty-eight, two or three years before they were born Max was off world doing missions with the first Rooters team."
Sunny became noticeably agitated talking about her extended family, her aura suddenly flaring up and charging around her, cracking the ground at her feet, "Shut up!" she quickly shouted with a booming echo in her voice. Stomping her foot as she shouted cracked open the ground at their feet prompting all three of them to stop suddenly as the ground shook, pausing for a moment everything went still and quiet, "Oops…" the ground began to shake again vigorously.
"Oops? What oops?" Cooper asked nervously.
Chuckling and darting her head around at the same time, Sunny answered with just as much nervousness in her voice, "Remember those tentacle-things I said we might come across, I may have just attracted one," after another anxious chuckle, her fears were confirmed. Four giant building sized black and white tentacles reminiscent of an Ectonurite's sprouted from deep beneath the planet's crust one by one.
Sunny ignited her fists in purple flames as she stepped backwards out from between them, Cooper flew directly up with the propulsion from his boots leaving Albedo to charge massive amounts of crimson electricity into his metallic gauntleted fists. One of the tentacles immediately went after Cooper who flew right to avoid it only making him question just how big it possibly could be as it never seemed to end, "Try this!" two shoulder-mounted rockets fired separating into a dozen smaller explosives that detonated on contact with the tentacle chasing after him.
Two individual tentacles attempted to corner Negative Frankenstrike who simply punched the ground with all his strength sending two-billion-volts of electricity into the massive creature below stunning it long enough for him to get out of range from the two. Sunny created a hot-pink domed shield around herself blocking the remaining tentacle which slammed into her defenses, cracking it apart much like glass. After a few strikes it sent her down to one knee with her hands up above her head, trying her best to fortify her defense.
Through the debris of the explosion, Cooper was stunned to find the tentacle he shot was unharmed, splitting the smoke, and giving chase wrapping around his ankle. It pulled him down and slammed him against the ground back-first, "Hell. No." Coop saw how Frankenstrike's voltage-based attack seemed to be effective and charged the power in his suit into a defense mechanism, using the self-sustaining energy core to release a ten-million-kilowatt charge of electricity frying the tentacle wrapped around his ankle. Seeing the first three tentacles retreating now, Negative Frankenstrike sprinted across the barren wasteland and double hooked the last tentacle as it swung down on Sunny one more time, with both fists he shocked it into submission retreating beneath the ground with the others.
Sunny collapsed to her knees, huffing and coughing, this planet was taking more out of her than she cared to admit, "Are you alright?" Albedo asked sympathetically as Cooper got to his feet and approached her, checking his battery limit. He noticed that while he still had a decent charge left, the armor's integrity was compromised at the ankle seeping toxic atmosphere through his suit.
"Albedo!" Cooper shouted, making his way towards the comrade, "I don't have much time…" gesturing to the armor cracked towards his shin; he detached the gauntlet over his armor from his forearm and handed it to him, pressing a few buttons on its holographic keyboard first, "I summoned the teleporter beam before I- ya know… use the gauntlet to call another one when you find Gwen."
Negative Frankenstrike shook his head, "I can't do it alone, and Sunny is depleted… perhaps we should retreat and regroup?" he glanced back at her noticing her strained breaths.
Cooper refused, "Look, you can do this, I believe in you, man. And as for Sunny, you said you liked the taste of my ion blast?"
She reluctantly nodded, watching as he tapped a few buttons on the opposing gauntlet prompting a small opening in the center of his torso to reveal itself. Cooper pulled out a small glowing neon-blue sphere the size of a nine-volt battery before tossing it at her, catching it in both hands, still sitting on the floor. "You need it more than I do, it's got enough power to sustain you for a while by my calculations, good luck!"
The beam acted just as it had before cutting through the smog filled atmosphere and enveloping Cooper as he was dematerialized from sight at faster-than-light speeds. Albedo slapped the dial across his chest with Frankenstrike's metallic gauntlet, Sunny covered her eyes for a moment as he exploded with a flash of crimson light; when she looked up at him again, what had taken his place was a nine-foot-tall man with a Pharaoh-esque helmet and beige bandages wrapped entirely across a lanky body, from head to toe. The bandages were outlined with a glowing neon-crimson which matched his eyes beneath the mask covering his face. "You should absorb that energy before we run into any more surprises," Negative Snare-Oh advised in a deep longer drawn out voice.
Sunny nodded and clutched the glowing sphere between both hands, closing her eyes for a moment, they reopened with a luminescent violet energy encompassing her vision. The sphere's light slowly began to fade as its neon-blue electricity surged into her hands changing hot-pink the further it crawled up her forearms. Sunny finally stood up on her own in front of Negative Snare-Oh whom watched as her entire body became slowly engulfed in her vibrant aura, returning to her pure energy form. She dropped the core at her feet now dull and grey, a simple hunk of metal without the energy she now powered herself with, "This should be enough until we find your friend and get out of here," she turned around and faced the head of the mountain where the cave she recalled investigating months prior was almost completely visible, "Let's hurry."
Albedo simply nodded his head and followed after her, still another fifteen or twenty minutes of walking ahead of them, he decided to ask a bit more about her, "Why did you get so upset when we asked about your supposed family heritage?"
Sunny folded her arms across her chest, "I dunno, I guess just because… I didn't have a lot of family growing up and my Grandma was the only one who took care of me. When she died I was so torn up, I actually shattered a Moon with my stupid tantrum," she chuckled at herself being so silly all those years ago, "Fifteen years later and I guess I'm still just as immature."
Negative Snare-Oh sighed with an understanding look in his eye, "Galvan don't have a lot of family ties either, we're born one out of several hundred children, and then usually we spend most of our time learning with a self-aware curse on the nature of the Universe from a young age."
Sunny scoffed with a depressed sneer, "I forgot how long and drawn out you Galvan could be, what's your point?"
"I understand what it's like to have a lonely life by nature and then lose the one you found love in the most," Albedo was talking mostly about his now presumed deceased ex-girlfriend, "I don't blame you for being emotional, I was once very much the same."
Sunny's expression softened up, turning her head to look back up at him as he walked beside her; she gave a short yet warm smile up toward him meeting her gaze with his own. "Thanks, it's been a long time since anyone's been able to cheer me up about this… and even longer since I've meet someone I actually liked."
"Well, I hope you don't mind that I say but, I think you'll get along with your half-cousin as well given that I'm assuming the outburst was you recognizing the name Maxwell Tennyson…"
Sunny looked to her feet and held one of her arms with her free hand, rubbing just below her shoulder, "I honestly can't believe that she would end up here of all places, and that I might actually leave here after so long," grinning happily for a moment, Albedo noticed the vibrant young women hidden beneath the survivor, a young girl who just wanted to be accepted by a family after such a long time. He noticed her expression change when she stepped on something that audibly cracked under her foot, stopping, and lifting her heel she found it was an alien skull long since having the flesh decomposed off the bone.
Negative Snare-Oh looked down and visually trailed the remnants of bone up leading to a massive gravesite of abandoned corpses, hundreds of people surrounded by their armor or even holding melee weapons, seemingly killed simultaneously long ago leaving behind a crowd of death. The skeletons trailed deep into the darkness of the cave, leading Sunny to gesture silently for Albedo to continue following her into the depths of said cavern.
"Watch your back, I feel the presence of something dark inside… beside the weapon your possessed friend is after," Sunny warned him in a whisper, her aura giving some light to their path, traversing deeper into the cave with every step.
Albedo gave it some thought, thinking on how he could bring Gwendolyn's consciousness to the forefront if they weren't able to subdue her outright, "Is there anyway for you to share the energy you use to protect you from this planet's atmosphere? To keep me safe in my normal form?"
"Technically," she answered hesitantly, still not entirely sure, "This blade is what's causing the life draining atmosphere so the closer we are to it the less likely you are to survive, why?"
"Just a thought, if it comes down to it I may need you to test that theory," he finished his sentence just as they turned the corner into the main cavern, a wide space where the walls were all lined with hexagonal catacombs presumably for the original native Vladats to sleep in numbers. It was the entire mountain hollowed out so the area was massive in width and height with a circular circumference.
They stepped over the skeletons laid across the ground in large numbers to find a large throne in the center of the hollow mountain, pierced through the back with a long-blackened scythe was another large skeleton of what was once presumably Lord Transyl. The blade that pultruded from his torso, attacked obviously from behind by some sort of traitor, illuminated the room with a sickening dark-purple glow.
"She's not here…" Negative Snare-Oh muttered with a quick look around the throne.
"Of course not! She was waiting for you fools to lead me straight to it!" Gwendolyn's raspy possessed voice announced as she appeared from behind Sunny using a blue concussive blast shove her through the air to the right, moving her out of the way. The Anodite landed on her feet, skating across the dirt on her heels before hitting the wall with her back, sending small cracks in the structure. She used a levitation spell to dart off the ground, doing the same to Albedo knocking him aside to flip mid-air over the corpse landing behind it and grabbing hold of the scythe's long handle.
Albedo landed on his back and regained his senses, sitting up to see how Zs'Skyar had changed Gwen's body with his possession over the last few hours, especially being on a planet with little to no sunlight. Her eyes were completely dark with only bright purple pupils glowing from the center with black cracks spreading across her cheeks and forehead; her clothes had also completely changed to what appeared to be an onyx black one-piece unitard, showing off her legs in a much more provocative way. Her hair had grown out a bit leaving her unkept bangs to fall strewn over her eyes.
"Gwendolyn!" he shouted as he shot his bandaged across the room, wrapping them around her arms to keep her from pulling the weapon out, "You must listen to me, this is not you!"
Zs'Skyar giggled with a psychotic grin, "Oh please, spare me the sentimental appeal to her humanity! Without the Omnitrix to defend them, my host is completely helpless to my control!" she quickly pulled against Snare-Oh's strength and yanked the scythe free, spinning on her barefoot heels causing the corpse to collapse into a pile of ashes. With one fierce swipe she sliced the bandages restraining her apart, also forcing Albedo to fall backwards again from the reverse momentum of his grip.
Sunny rubbed her head for a moment and saw how mutated by the Ectonurite this 'Gwen' person had become, looking over the scythe she'd pulled with a intense stare and even scarier smile. The Anodite charged her violet aura into her hands and rapidly launched discs of solid mana energy at Zs'Skyar like projectiles, watching the possessed Gwendolyn walk forwards without fear, slicing them apart with precise swings. "The darkness that flows through me now can drain the life of the most durable of entities in the Universe! Even you, Anodite, will soon shrivel and die!"
Sunny scowled and backed away, "We'll see about that!"
Zs'Skyar held the scythe up above her head and swung down on the ground summoning ethereal shrouds from the ground, "This body has many unique advantages, such as knowledge of the dark arts!" these shrouds quickly formed into large blades that tunneled across the ground, weaving in and out until they were in range to impale Sunny.
Throwing up a hot-pink energy shield at the last possible moment, she stopped two razor-sharp shadow blades from killing her only seconds before they struck, seeing how they already made it halfway through her shield, the ends pultruding from the other side inches from her face. Sunny gasped and quickly dodged to the side, tucking, and rolling out of the way as they broke through the meta-physical wall, shattering it like glass, digging into ground where she stood seconds ago.
Negative Snare-Oh unleashed a volley of bandages wrapping thoroughly around Zs'Skyar's body; first around her arms pulling back with enough force to loosen her grip on the weapon causing her to drop it. He then continued to enfold the rest of her body as she struggled to break free, "Think for yourself, how would Benjamin feel if I returned without you?! What about your daughter, Jennifer?"
The bandages swathed over her face and eyes until she fell to her knees, though this didn't last long as they watched her mummified body illuminate with purple flashes of light between the lining of his bandage-limbs. She suddenly broke free in an explosion of mana, lifting off the ground several feet as her aura was violent and erratic, using her telekinesis that clearly came from the Ectonurite to call the handle of the scythe back to her hand. The force of the explosion sent both Sunny and Albedo back in opposing directions, both hitting the walls of the mountain-cavern, shaking the foundation causing rubble to fall from the ceiling.
Zs'Skyar aimed the curved blade of her scythe at Sunny, firing bolts of pink lightning that struck a mana-shield but, quickly began to pull it in turning it into pure energy that funneled back into the possessed Gwendolyn, "Once I take the power of the Anodite, I will have enough strength to rule the Earth in an eternal night!" she cackled loudly with a menacing laugh.
Sunny fell to her knees, writhing in pain as her very essence was stolen from her bit by bit, the energy seeped off her body in long strains as the lightning also shocked her simultaneously. Zs'Skyar was only distracted by a flash of crimson light exploding behind her but, before she could turn around a sonic boom knocked her back to her hands and knees severing the absorption and relieving Sunny from her torture.
Negative Blitzwolfer stood a few dozen feet away with his jaw unhinged and split in four directions revealing sharpened fangs, he dropped from his hindlegs to his hands and back paws to fire another sonic howl which knocked Gwendolyn off her feet, spinning through the air only barely landing on her toes. She spung quickly with the scythe releasing a slash of dark-magic energy which easily hit Albedo with double the force he released just prior sending him skating back on his claws until he hit the cave wall again, knocking rocks from the ceiling once again, falling around them.
Sunny got back to her feet, gaining her second wind, only to weakly support herself against the wall, "I'm practically drained, soon I'll have to revert back to my base form… if she absorbs anymore of my essence like that again I wont survive it," looking down to the palms of her hands she noticed tremors in her fingers barely able to keep them still.
Gwendolyn floated towards Negative Blitzwolfer just a foot or two off the ground, gloating on her victory, her eyes pulsated with the dark magic Zs'Skyar forced her to channel, "Perhaps I'll kill you first before using your power to end your new Anodite friend, how poetic!" cocking back her hand with the scythe prepared for a swing.
Negative Blitzwolfer's eyes widened, "Sunny! Time to test my theory! Now!" his shout echoed across the cavern, as she stood up straight and lifted her hands into the air prompting Gwendolyn to turn her head back for a single instant.
"You've got two minutes!" she swung her hands back down sending a wave of mana across the mountain encompassing everything in sight.
Within the same second, a crimson explosion of light engulfed Albedo reverting back to his human form and Gwendolyn swung her arm to the side prepared to cleave his head from his neck in one motion. Though, Albedo didn't flinch as the blade stopped centimeters from his neck not even blinking at the prospect of death. "You can't do it, can you?"
Zs'Skyar struggled as her arm shook trying to force the blade to make contact, however; no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get Gwen's arm to budge, "W-What's happening!"
"You see, Ectonurite, I wear the face of Ben Tennyson as I'm sure you're aware… That means I'm identical to the love of your hosts life, the father of her children!" Albedo pressed his neck up against the blade to make it easier for her, drawing a single drop of blood from his throat, "Go ahead! One inch and you'll slit my throat and this will be over!"
She struggled as the handle in her hand shook, she couldn't get it to move even a millimeter forwards, dropping the handle the scythe clattered to the floor at her feet, "I-Impossible! I have control! N-Not you!" collapsed to her hands and knees, she clutched her head and screamed in pain, the cracks emanating from her eyes slowly withdrew back into her head before fading away.
Albedo took several steps forwards after kicking the handle and launching the bladed scythe across the room, "I had a strong feeling that Gwendolyn Tennyson, of all humans, was far too powerfully willed to control her completely," as he approached her she curled up into a ball, the darkness that enveloped her body in that strange outfit dissipated slowly leaving her in her short-sleeved navy-blue top and black shorts. "All I needed was a visual que to trigger her memories, her real memories, now get the hell out of there, Ectonurite!"
"Gah! AGH!" Gwendolyn rolled on the floor in pain as she sat up slowly, twitching and seizing, "I-If I cannot posses t-this body, p-perhaps one with an Om-Omnitrix will suit me b-better!" she reeled back and shouted at the top of her lungs, exhaling a massive ethereal smoke which funneled into the air forming a disgusting creature. A grey skinned, hunch-backed, phantom with long razor sharp claws, and an upside down skeletal head which was positioned upside down on its noncorporeal form.
"Come now! This is what you wanted, yes?!" Albedo opened his arms inviting the ghostly creature into his body with little to no hesitation.
Sunny's eyes widened on the other side of the cave, barely noticing the similarities to her supposed half-cousin and more focused on the first friend she'd met being possessed by the creature floating above him. Still, she kept her hands above her head and refocused her attention on the energy it took to keep the both of them from being drained to death in seconds by the planet's parasitic atmosphere.
"How foolishly noble!" Zs'Skyar announced before channeling his body into a thin stream of grey smoke which funneled directly into Albedo's mouth and nose, forcing him to his knees suddenly as he clutched his own head waiting for his que.
'DNA Sample Acquired, Purging Sentience'
The core within Albedo's mechanical hand shun bright yellow before spinning three times and releasing a crimson hologram of an Ectonurite in its true form opposed to its traditional ghostly state, "The only f-fool, is you!" he quickly used the last of his control to slap the Ultimatrix resulting in yet another flash of red light. When it cleared, Zs'Skyar reappeared only with a crimson hourglass symbol placed firmly on his chest, "Unlike your previous experiences, I am not a child nor utilizing a prototype device. I'm afraid my Ultimatrix eradicated your consciousness as soon as the transformation completed," without a second thought, he used his sharpened claws to slap the dial on his chest reverting back to his human form once again.
Gwendolyn groaned on the floor, holding her head in discomfort, everything was blurry around her and she'd lost all of her memory of the last four hours since she was possessed in her home on Earth. Her surroundings faded to black as she fell flat on the ground completely still, unconscious on her back.
Sunny jogged towards him with her hands in the air above her head, "Did you do it?!" she asked completely unsure of what just happened right in front of her. The purple energy field encompassing the cave slowly narrowed out around her, her skin began to show again as the pure energy form she utilized lost its power. Albedo pulled out Cooper's gauntlet and set their coordinates summoning the tachyon-beam to their location first and foremost, "I did, that Ectonurite wont be a problem for anyone, ever again."
"That's great, let's just hope that teleporter thing gets here soon- wait, what about that thing?" she nodded her head over at the scythe lying on the ground several feet away, looking back to him to see his expression.
Albedo narrowed his eyes, scoffing at it, "Leave it, on this planet, it should be no harm to anyone… my focus is on her," he glanced back down to Gwendolyn who was soundly asleep but, otherwise looked to be in good health aside from her tattered clothes.
"So…" Sunny paused looking around nervously for a moment before glancing back at him, "I didn't exactly hear everything you said but, you did say she wasn't your girlfriend, right?" she gave a small smile as the heat ran to her cheeks, only visible due to her energy form dissipating completely.
The teleportation beam struck down through the mountain top whisking all three of them off the planet in a single shot, escaping with their lives at the speed of light.
…
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