Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 61: Patience or Peril
Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; December 22nd, 2025; 7:33PM.
Gwendolyn tried to ignore the fact that her husband was already late for his own birthday party and focus on the other facet of her family that was currently burning to ash around her, the daughter that seemed to resent her for something she wasn't even aware of. Perhaps it was the mere fact that she didn't know what was making her so angry and eager to drink her feelings away that prompted Jennifer to double down on that resentment. She spotted the sixteen year old girl with a brand new glass of champagne in one hand and her flask in the other, pouring what was left of the rum within into the glass of golden-bubbling juice.
"Jennifer!" Gwen called out in a whisper, slightly startling the teen in the process as a bit of the rum spilled on her hand in the process.
Jennifer groaned as she tried licking the alcohol off the back of her hand, "Ugh, look what you did!" she shouted back at her.
"Good," Gwen responded, grabbing the glass out of her hand, and tossing the liquid contents onto the hardwood floors, "You aren't supposed to be drinking, you're supposed to be here to support your Father and I," as soon as she said this, the teenager scoffed at her mother and rolled her emerald eyes.
"I'm supposed to be supporting you? That's rich," Jennifer pocketed her flask and attempted to walk away with that sarcastic comment as her exit but, Gwendolyn grabbed her wrist from behind, yanking her back.
"I am your mother and you are not going to walk away from me like that again," Gwen tried to discipline her daughter, even wagging a finger in her face for good measure but, it didn't have the desired effect.
Jennifer turned and slapped her mother's hand out of the way as tears welled in her eyes, "Is that who you are? Because I couldn't really tell considering you hardly acknowledge me, and when you do it's for some bullshit event like this."
"Watch your language," Gwendolyn immediately insisted with an angered expression, though it was difficult to figure out what to say next, "We did our best raising you, if we weren't around sometimes-"
"Sometimes?! I hardly knew my Dad's full name before I was ten, it took a massive battle on an alien planet for him to spend any real time with me, and that was the same day I lost you too… after that you spent all your time training, and mastering stupid spells," Jennifer was fighting her hardest not to scream every word in her mother's face, having at least the decency to avoid making a scene in front of the guests, "And you know what the worst part about having you two as parents has been? My father's former rival is a better father to me than Ben has ever been, and they both do the same job," it stung the mother's heart to hear her talk about them that way, the utter disdain for her and Ben wasn't something she expected to hear tonight. Pointing out just how much her parent's through themselves into their work without even realizing it. "And look at that, low-and-behold, the great Ben Ten Thousand isn't even here!" this time she did announce that loud enough for the entire auditorium to hear her.
Gwendolyn opened her mouth to speak but, just as she did, the entire building shook with an outside force reverberating against the tower's walls; small fragments of rubble along with dry-wall dust rained down around guests as a collection of gasps rang out upon the second loud-boom that went off in the skies above the building. The sorceress supreme huffed with an irritated expression, glaring daggers at her daughter, she knew something was happening outside and that she needed to act on it, there wasn't time to argue about their personal lives. Gwen stomped away with Jennifer scoffing, figuring that's what she'd do to begin with, just run away from her problems.
The young teen heroine sighed, walking away and grabbing a glass from the nearby table as she passed it, still walking along the edges of the room to avoid running into anyone she knew. She was texting on her transparent glass-phone to one of her many school-friends with one hand and holding a fresh glass of champagne with the other, enjoying her buzz when a familiar well-built man with slicked back silver hair, a silver goatee, and a black shirt with a crimson stripe down the middle, "Have you seen your mother?" he asked in a familiar voice as Jennifer finally glanced up from her phone to recognize him.
"Uncle A! Sorry, I'm not really speaking to her right now…" she insisted with a slightly slurred speech, shaking her head at him as her hair swung back and forth, she looked back at her phone once again obliviously. Albedo could tell she was intoxicated but, even though she could get drunk, didn't mean her metabolism would let her stay that way for long. Which is likely why she was drinking so much to begin with. He put a hand on her shoulder, catching her attention as he looked up again, this time into his crimson-eyes, "Stay here and sober up, it sounds like a battle may be starting outside," he gently took the drink out of her hands as she nodded up at him, looking around at the room for water to drink as he walked away to find Gwen.
Cooper spotted Rook and Lucy in the crowd and pulled Julie gently across the room, through the crowd towards the couple, tapping on Rook's shoulder to address him as he turned around, "Hey guys, does anyone know where Ben is?" he asked calmly.
Rook shrugged and pointed out the obvious to them, just as another loud boom shook the building and caused panicked shouts to briefly erupt before dying down again, "I believe he would be wherever these shockwaves are originating from."
Lucy could feel the reverberations in her muddy-bones, her entire body quivering at the sensation of such insane physical force being exerted, "I hope he's the one doing the pummeling," she expressed, grabbing Rook's furry palm for comfort as their fingers intertwined.
"There you guys are," Gwen announced from behind the group, placing her hands on Cooper and Rook's side-by-side shoulders, "Does anyone know what that is?" her questions were answered as the entire building shook more vigorously this time, nearly knocking several civilian guests off their feet, as the sound of explosion after explosion rang through the auditorium slowly getting louder. The sound of glass shattering outside the door opened to guests filled the ears of every single person in the room, prompting some of them to turn to the door and watch massive shards crash against the sidewalk, momentarily blocking their exit.
Celestial was swung downwards with so much force that he continued through each of the many dozens of floors, tearing through drywall, concrete, and steel girders without so much as slowing down. Every single window on each floor exploded outwards, shattering from the force, one by one consecutively as he tore through each floor. Albedo sighed as the booming got much louder to him, he could tell it was coming from the massive nearly-hundred-story tower above the auditorium but, he couldn't find Gwendolyn to tell her his suspicions. In that moment he heard it coming, something was about to cave through the ceiling, and in the second after he darted his eyes upwards, massive chunks of concrete splintered outwards as a figure came toppling through. Celestial uncontrollably broke through floor after floor until eventually he broke through the ceiling of the ground-floor auditorium, cratering the ground as he shook the entire building with his final impact. Clouds of dry-wall dust and pieces of rubble rained down around the guests as the heroes attending the function approached the large crater, the screaming and stampeding didn't take long to start after the initial impact sounded through the hall.
Jennifer, who was chugging a glass of water nearly spat it out as her eyes darted upwards, stared at the massive hole in the ceiling until she finally tore her them away and dashed to the nearest wall, slapping her hand against the fire-alarm, which with her impressive strength shattered the bright-red plastic device but, the alarm sounded through the entire building none-the-less. Gwendolyn floated over the crater and the heads of dozens of guests as Cooper, Julie, Lucy, and Rook all surrounded it, some of them staring up at the astonishing amount of large-holes with sparks of disconnected wiring flickering above leading from this point to the roof. Gwen slowly lowered herself down into the crater and knelt down in the dirt beside Celestial who was unconscious and likely healing his wounds but, the sheer extend of the damage he'd already taken hurt the mage down to her core. There was a massive hole in his chest that was just now beginning to seal with a golden-energy flooding his entire body, regenerating his wounds.
Albedo finally found his way through the crowd and approached her from behind, putting a hand on her shoulder, but he didn't know what to say yet so he allowed her to speak through a clenched jaw and rageful tears. Celestial was one of the most powerful alien transformations in the entire Omnitrix, whatever could do this to him would have to be incredibly dangerous.
Gwendolyn shook with fear, holding the hand of her husband as she wept on her knees; slowly she looked up from his prone form at the man identical to her husband standing over her, "Go up there… and kill whoever did this…" she muttered coldly up at him, receiving a dutiful nod from her husband's once-rival as he quickly turned around, floating up and out of the crater through the many number of forced openings leading straight to the roof.
Jennifer noticed this and knew he wouldn't allow her to join should she ask, so she figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Normally that wouldn't be a very risky call to make, even though she now had the transformation unlocked in her Omnitrix, it was very clear she had no idea what a Cosmian was capable of. She took a final swig of water as she floated off the ground, closing in on the ceiling before dropping her glass down to the abandoned hardwood floors below.
As they both entered the series of dozens of holes leading up to the roof where above their friend was beaten into unconsciousness and near death without provocation, Albedo noticed Jennifer floating up ten or so feet away towards the same opening. "This is too dangerous; you need to head back down to your mother."
She scoffed, "No way, I need to let off some steam, and whoever did that to my Dad is the perfect outlet," she folded her arms across her maturing bust and turned her head away from him, "You cant talk me out of it," Jennifer sped up with a burst of propulsion through the building and out the opening in seconds with Albedo following close behind her, reluctantly incapable of convincing her to return to safety.
As soon as they entered the night-sky from the top end of the tower, floating above the giant observation-ring that surrounded the building; it took them several seconds to spot the responsible party with Jennifer shouting out, "Look!" before pointing up a few thousand feet away, with their enhanced vision they could see the behemoths floating with their wings spread out, "There they are!"
Albedo's eyes snapped open wide, floating forwards slowly only to follow after Jennifer while he was completely stunned, "I-It can't be…" he muttered on approach.
Jennifer flew in at high speeds before stopping in her tracks just over two dozen feet away, floating in place while she confidently addressed the winged-duo whom didn't even recognize her presence, "Hey! Judging by those big, goofy, pelican-wings I'm gonna guess you're the one who just beat down on Earth's greatest hero, how close am I?" even with the childish and insulting attitude of an arrogant teenager, they still weren't effected by her enough to even acknowledge her.
Albedo floated in behind her slowly, keeping a cautious eye on the duo as they simply mumbled between themselves in a language not even he could understand, there was only one way he could think that might get their attention without changing forms and possibly giving off an aggressive intentions. He cleared his throat before beginning, "I am Albedo of the Galvan, one of this planet's sworn protectors; in the name of the Galactic Code of Conduct, section three-thousand-nine-hundred-and-nine, subsection B-twelve, I demand you name yourselves, your rank, and your intentions on this world," there was a visible drop of nervous sweat forming over his brow but, he tried to remain confident regardless. His clear reluctance to address them with anything but the absolute most formal methods did intimidate Jennifer more than she'd like to admit, watching her Uncle gulp loudly while making eye contact with them wasn't something she had ever really seen.
The taller male Cosmian raised his brow in confusion at the mention of the galactic-code, most undeveloped species such as this one had no idea of its existence but, here this hero was reciting scripture from it. He looked down briefly at the slightly shorter female, tucking her long black hair over her shoulder with a touch of earned arrogance in her body language, "Don't talk to them before you've scanned them, they look like… locals," she said with narrowed eyes and disgust.
"Mhm," he responded, holding out a hand with his open palm facing upwards, after a second or two of silence, a hard-light blue hologram projection appeared above his hand with numbers also in a language Albedo didn't recognize, "He has an aura of about a thousand, the child is only around three-hundred, but if he's really a Galvan, he wouldn't have a high aura count anyways."
Jennifer scoffed at this, raising her brow, "Aura count? Are you saying you put a number to someone's overall strength, and I'm only at three-hundred?!" she clearly didn't understand the danger she was in, and there wasn't any time left to explain it to her.
"Fine, since you know the Galactic Code so well, I'll humor you with the reason we've come to your tiny, pathetic world…" the male Cosmian closed his palm dispersing the holographic image as he floated forwards, his wings as still as the tension between them, "I am General Volt, and this is my Lieutenant, Valeria; we are of the Cosmian Empire and we are here to exterminate a pretender with Cosmian DNA."
"Which we did," Valeria chuckled, taking a deep breath as she reminisced on just a few moments ago, closing her eyes and biting her lips, "It was amazing, I haven't felt so hot since our raid on Deblon-4," she moaned through a closed mouth, humming her arousal.
"Don't be weird, Valeria," Volt rolled his dark pupils, disregarding her unreasonably sexual comments to address, "Now that we've killed the pretender, we're going to be taking our leave…"
"I don't think so!" Jennifer shouted, her fists clenched at her side, having heard every disgusting word about this vile-woman getting off to the act of beating her father to near-death. She turned her head to look up at them with vibrantly glowing purple energy in her eyes, "You nearly beat him to death and now you think you can just leave? No way!"
Volt raised his brow, turning his head to look into Valeria's equally confused eyes, "Did you say nearly?" he repeated.
"Oh, yea! He's probably already coming up with a plan to beat you."
Valeria's expression turned to a scowl, glaring down at the ground floor of the building, she sneered, "She's bluffing but, he is still alive if only barely."
"This mission isn't over until you've killed him, this world isn't even level two, how could you make a mistake like that? I told you toying with him was a bad idea, now go down there and kill him properly," Volt scolded her with an angered face, pointing down at the ground for her to do as he commanded; her wings flapped once as she turned to fly back down to the auditorium.
Albedo ground his teeth in frustration before transforming via the Master Control with a blinding flash of crimson light engulfing his body, a blood-red beam of light emerged from that flash intercepting Valeria before she could leave the area they were floating in. She was shocked when a six-foot-nine, broad-chested, man with shoulder length black hair and raven-black wings sprouting from his back, floated between her and her target, "I'm sorry but, that isn't a good enough reason to kill my friend," his gleaming-red suit was outlined with blackened-trim, his aura was crimson, surging with phenomenal black-lightning, and his ears were oddly pointed as well as his teeth more fanged unlike Celestial's.
Jennifer wasn't sure if she should follow his lead just yet, waiting for a good time to show that she too could transform, even into a Cosmian if she so chooses; she kept herself in a ready stance even while floating in mid-air, preparing herself to act with her hand near her Omnitrix bearing wrist.
Valeria blinked in awe, hoping that her eyes were deceiving her, "There are two of them?" her voice sounding angrier than Albedo was hoping it would be.
"I'm called Midknight in this form, I can help you leave this world in peace but, if your intent is to hurt my friends or this planet, I will be forced to defend them," he floated back in place, knowing they likely wouldn't back down and retreat but, at least hoping they would consider it.
The General raised his hand and opened his palm projecting a screen of blue light once again; Valeria, however, didn't seem to need a device to check for their supposed 'aura levels' that were talked about earlier. While the former checked their levels with his device, Valeria squinted her eyes at her new opponent getting a read on his level, "Don't worry, he's a youngling just like the last one," she became far more confident as soon as she saw the numbers in her what appeared to be the same device being used by Volt only compressed into a contact-lens of sorts, "He's only at fourteen-thousand, I'll take care of him too and then we can leave," she insisted with a smile, cracking her knuckles with a devious grin, glaring at Midknight with rage in her eyes for some reason.
"Take care of them one at a time, they could be trouble for you alone if they were to fight together," Volt pointed out, folding his arms once again, disappointed in her refusal to think her battles through, "And make sure they're actually dead this time," he growled.
This comment irritated Valeria but, she exhaled through her nose and regained her composure, "Fine," she said nonchalantly, "I'll just take out how pissed off you made me by making sure they're definitely dead."
"Try not to destroy the whole planet, it'll ruin my armor… and then we have to explain it to command, no thanks," Volt shocked the heroes floating in front of them by casually discussing the destruction of entire planets as if it were a regular occurrence on their part.
"That's only happened twice, and the last time was your own fault!"
Jennifer gulped, starting to understand the gravity of the situation they were now in, scoffing at the numbers Midknight produced, and the destruction of entire worlds is nothing more than a load of tedious paperwork? She was more than just intimidated, her heart started pounding in her chest and she felt that she might vomit if she didn't transform right that moment.
Nobody saw her swipe the Omnitrix dial to transform, only the flash of amethyst light engulfing her person as an older woman with short-black hair and bright, neon-purple eyes emerged with pink-feathered wings keeping her aloft as she floated out of the glow with the Omnitrix dial sitting on her shoulder. Her onyx black, densely-weaved, armored suit was trimmed with hot-pink along the edges and her aura was ablaze with bright amethyst flames shrouding her entire body.
"What?!" Volt shouted, the device in his hand detecting another reading from the younger girl beside them, "Another Cosmian pretender? With a level of eleven-thousand, why even bother calling yourself that with such a low aura?"
"I can take all three of them!" Valeria shouted out of frustration.
Volt narrowed his eyes at Midknight, scratching his chin, "Maybe… but I'd like to not take the chance; they will hold the numbers advantage so, kill them before the first one recovers," he asserted, glancing down at the ground floor where guests fled the scene as Valeria's expression turned to a malicious grin, her eyes flooding with a bloodthirsty arousal.
"I cant wait to taste their blood…" she moaned, slipping into a fighting stance even while floating mid-air.
…
Down below, Plumbers and law enforcement had set up barriers around Tennyson Tower, rolling high-grade Plumber tanks and parking squad cars with their lights flashing all around the entire radius of the building; emergency services had already made their way inside but, they had no idea how to deal with an alien demi-god lying unconscious in the middle of a massive impact-crater.
Closest to Celestial was Gwendolyn kneeling and holding his right hand with a determined look on her face, as though she was sure this wasn't the end for him; the surging golden energy leaked from the pores of his skin and danced in the around his body, telling her that he was only recovering somehow from whatever they did to him. Julie was knelt on his left side, using a stethoscope from one of the EMT members to listen for his heartbeat, her eyes widened and she quickly placed her fingers on his neck, "I-I'm not getting a pulse…" she muttered, glancing up at Gwendolyn.
The mage narrowed her eyes, stretching her right arm out above her head, with a mere thought she was now able to materialize her armored-sleeve adorned with the six Charms of Bezel woven into its mesh, "I can take care of that," without hesitation, Gwen raised her right arm, her hand now summoning the power of the Electrokinetic charm with arcs of blue electricity jolting between her fingers. Before she could attempt to forcibly restart his heart, someone grabbed her wrist, stopping her as the electricity dispersed.
She turned to look up and it was Cooper who summoned a holographic hard-light screen centimeters in front of his right-eye, accessing this device with his technopathy and using it to scan Celestial's vitals, "His heart didn't stop, it just slowed down to about two or three beats a minute, I'd say that's normal but, our knowledge on Cosmians is dangerously lacking."
"Where's Jennifer?" Gwendolyn asked, keeping her hand on Celestial's chest, caressing the hole in his suit that once led to a massive gaping wound, now healed through his regenerative abilities.
Rook turned in a circle, looking around at the otherwise empty room, there was obviously no sign of her, "I am not sure, she must have left with the other guests."
Lucy giggled with a cute-snort, slapping Rook's shoulder lightly, "Of course she left, silly, she followed Albedo out the big hole in the ceiling…" as she finished this sentence, they all turned to look at her with irritated glares, why hadn't she told anyone sooner, "What? I just said she's with Albedo…" she shrugged, emphasizing that he would take care of her.
Gwendolyn sighed, patting her husbands unconscious face gently, before standing up, and floating up, out of the crater, "I have to help them, keep an eye on Ben, I'm gonna find out who exactly I ruining our birthday," she floated up towards the massive hole in the ceiling, as she sped up her flight, her body was engulfed in white light from the neck down, materializing her entire skin-tight armored suit complete with its durable light-blue cloak billowing behind her in the cold night air. As she flew through the forced opening in the building, all she could think of was how her husband was beaten so viciously with strength enough to do damage like this. It only irritated her even more, holding out her hand and summoning her Staff of Ages with a shimmer of blue-energy over the palm of her left hand; the Alpha Rune responded to her anger and rage, amplifying her magical-prowess even more so, her eyes flooded with neon-turquoise flames.
She exited the tunnel of holes in her building as she flew up into the night-sky, the atmosphere was completely void of clouds leaving a beautiful sight of vivid stars in the sky above, especially at this height. Gwendolyn looked around through the sky, she didn't have enhanced vision like her husband and daughter but, she did her best to spot the enemy in the sky with them. Suddenly, she noticed something flying at her at high speeds, something almost humanoid but, the closer it got the more familiar the person seemed until the woman clashed with the floating mage, taking her with her through the air as they tumbled uncontrollably towards Mount Rushmore. The woman grabbed Gwendolyn by the shoulders and shot her light-pink feathered wings out at either side stopping their momentum, "Mom?!" Harmony shouted, not noticing the drop of blood trickling down the right-corner of her mouth to her chin.
"Jennifer? Where's your Uncle? Who are we fighting?" Gwendolyn regained her balance in the air, looking around while she questioned her daughter.
Harmony sighed, turning around in the air to watch with her enhanced vision as Midknight did his best to fend off Valeria, clearly doing far better than herself, "Two enemies, they're like this form, the species with wings like Celestial, Cosmics or whatever," though she had completely sobered up on top of this transformation being incapable of getting intoxicated, she still failed to remember the name of the empire whose General and Lieutenant were attacking them.
"That would mean… you cant fight them, Jennifer, they're too powerful, even in this form, they can kill you," Gwendolyn grabbed Harmony's arm, trying to convince her to stand back out of the motherly instinct that overtook her at times.
Harmony scowled, scoffing, and turning her head, her short-hair swaying with the motion, "I'm not going to leave him out there to fight them alone, to die alone," she effortlessly pulled her arm free of her mother's grip, floating forwards for a moment, she had nothing left to say, simply dematerializing in a burst of immense speed.
…
Harmony rushed in with a right-straight punch from the left while Valeria's attention was still focused on Midknight, though at the last second, she turned with her hands holding tightly onto his wrists, swinging him into her oncoming punch forcing her to pull back and slam headfirst into his face, disorienting them both severely with the impact trauma.
Midknight growled and held his hand out at her with an open palm, he unleashed a volley of black-lightning which struck her in the chest which seemed to be actually slowing her down. Midknight took this in stride, using his anger and the pain to force his aura to swell around him, like whirlwind of blood-red energy lined with darkness and shrouded with black arcs of electricity across his body. Volt's eyes widened, holding his hand out, he rescanned his opponent, and was shocked to see the results had changed rather significantly, "That's impossible," he spoke to himself, having never seen something like this before, "His aura shot up over eighteen-thousand! That's insane, I've only ever heard of royalty being able to adjust their maximum aura levels. This world has more surprises than I expected…" he narrowed his eyes, keen on watching how this battle plays out, he dispersed the scanner and lowered his arm. Midknight ceased the bombardment of lightning only to lunge forwards at massively faster than the speed of light, tackling her through the air as they careened into Mount Rushmore, shattering Lincoln's stone-carved face with their impact.
Valeria had her back planted against the stonework, massive chunks of rock collapsing below, Midknight reeled his right fist back and sent punch aimed straight for her face, though instead it met one of her forearms. The shockwave from even that guarded blow shook the entire monument, sending large cracks through out the other faces carved into the mountain. The steel barrier covering the interior Plumber base slowly became exposed as she attempted to push him away, he simply grabbed her by the neck and forced her deeper into rocks. Using the physical contact he was making having her neck in his grip, he sent a powerful electrocution through his hands and out into her body, shrouding them both in massive arcs of black lightning. She screamed in agony as trillions of joules of energy surged across her skin and through her blood and bones.
Harmony watched from afar as they continued to battle with Midknight taking the edge in the last encounter, though it was only a few seconds before she realized there was a massive, likely just as strong, behemoth of a man floating behind her. She turned slowly to glance over at him, his eyes on Midknight and Valeria's struggle, he hardly seemed to even recognize that she was there. She looked down at her hands, she wanted to take the opportunity to attack him while he was off guard but, something about his presence was so daunting, her hands were shaking nervously. Harmony was scared to her very core, even in this powerful form, she inhaled deeply and shook her head, getting ready to pounce on him regardless of the way her body reacted.
"I wouldn't if I were you," Volt spoke to her for the first time, not looking in her direction though, "If you attack me now, I will kill you, so at least give yourself a fighting chance by waiting for Valeria," the entire time he spoke he kept his eyes on the battle taking place against Mount Rushmore, but something about him made her fear for her life despite him not making a single aggressive move. Was this the aura-thing they were talking about earlier? And does what he said mean Valeria is much weaker than him? Harmony floated back, grinding her teeth in frustration, she looked urgently back at the battle where massive bolts of lightning were wildly striking the shattered mountain. Noticing Midknight had the warrior-woman pinned against the mountain-top, she huffed and took off towards them at high speeds; she angled herself perfectly, coming in from behind Midknight with her right leg outstretched, she slipped right into the space under his arm planting her heel against Valeria's armored chest, before pushing off her body, and back flipping out of Midknight's way as he continued his assault.
He rapidly fired his punches into Valeria's gut and torso at many times the speed of light, giving the speed-mirage that he wielded many dozens of fists striking in succession; Mount Rushmore fell apart under the sheer magnitude of the force behind his punches until her back slammed against the energy-field protecting the exterior barriers for the Plumber Base within. Unfortunately, in the middle of that barrage of attacks, Valeria's angered frown turned into an aroused smile; out of nowhere, as though this entire time she was allowing herself to be injured this entire time, she caught both of Midknight's fists in the palms of her hands, not allowing him to pull back.
Valeria giggled with blood spurting down her lower lip, slicking her chin in crimson dripping liquid, her teeth covered in it as well though it didn't stop her giddy smile, "Hehe, sorry, I just really love the feeling of being pummeled like that, your fists are so hard, ya know?" though she did seem injured, she didn't at all seem concerned by it in the slightest. Midknight struggled against her grip but, it didn't budge for even a second, even while it seemed like she wasn't trying at all. "Sorry," she said quickly, giving him no time to think before yanking him headfirst for a furious headbutt which undoubtedly shattered his nose on impact with her forehead. Valeria followed this up with a sucker punch to the gut, knocking the air out of his lungs before turning in place gracefully to roundhouse kick him in the face, sending a shockwave out around them that shook the entire Plumber Base vigorously as well as the rest of Tennyson Tower.
Midknight flew through the air controllably until he landed back first against the unyielding Volt who held him by the arms, keeping him pinned as Valeria came in after him and landed a powerful left-straight punch to his abdomen. His blood came up, splattering from his lips all over Valeria's face, though she didn't seem to mind it at all, "Mmm… so warm," she moaned, sticking her tongue out to lick the sprinkles of blood around the edges of her lips.
Gwendolyn floated up behind Harmony, putting a hand on her shoulder, though the moment she saw her mother, she yanked her shoulder away, "I'm not abandoning the fight, we can still win this," she whispered, knowing full well Albedo still had a move up his sleeve he'd yet to reveal.
"I know," Gwen responded with an understanding smile, there was still a lot they had to discuss about her drinking and her behavior but, none of that mattered right now, they couldn't afford to be at each others' necks when the world and their lives were at stake. "I'm here to fight with you, not Mom you," she winked at her as Harmony finally smiled, with a determined glare taking over her expression she turned her head back at their enemies.
"Hell yea," Harmony moved to advance but, Gwendoly put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from rushing into the fight half-cocked.
"Give it a minute, Albedo and I have plans for situations like this, you'll get your chance, just wait…" Gwendolyn assured her daughter that she wasn't just being an overly cautious Mother, she was a veteran strategizing.
"Finish him already," Volt insisted, keeping his grip firm on either of Midknight's arms, keeping them forcibly by his side, though just as Valeria scoffed and reeled her fist back for one final punch, their victim broke out into laughter.
Midknight started with a low chuckle, surprising the warrior into stopping her immediate attack, lowering her arm, "What's so funny? I don't get too many laughers when I'm doing executions," she asked which, even Volt was curious about as he allowed her to ask her question without controversy. He continued to laugh even louder now, beginning to irritate both Cosmian warriors present with his disrespect in both laughing at her and refusing to answer her question, "I asked you a question!" she shouted, her wings being engulfed in a golden hue of energy, her own aura clearly not as vibrant as their own despite her raw physical power.
Gwendoly began muttering to herself, a turquoise set of flames engulfing her hands as they danced over the palms of her hands as they were connected in a prayer sign. The flames slowly consumed her entire body, building up massive amounts of Mana and mystical energy from Ledger Domain through the Alpha Rune, needing every ounce she could get if she were to pull this off.
Midknight's laughter slowly died down, chuckling a bit before responding, "I just recalled laughing as being the best distraction possible mid-battle, and I only needed a few seconds to regather my thoughts so I could do this…" his body exploded with crimson light and a powerful surge of energy, firing a beam of blood-red light up into the sky from his body. This power forced Volt backwards through the air, floating back in awe as the evolutionary function in Ultimatrix took his Midknight transformation through over a million years of combat simulations, evolving his every attribute to make him the best fighter possible. Just like Celestial, he sprouted two-shorter, black-feathered wings below the original two; silver armor formed over his forearms, shoulders, and chest as well as a helmet of the same color covering his glowing crimson eyes. Ultimate Midknight flexed his muscles, now being almost a foot taller than Volt, as the light from his transformation dimmed around him, the aura still cackling with black bolts of lightning, and his muscle definition outlined with crimson energy, he floated completely still for a moment as he adjusted to his power.
"W-What the hell did he just do?!" Valeria shouted over Ultimate Midknight's shoulder at Volt behind him, the latter of whom was only slightly taken aback by this amplification of power.
Volt held his hand out once more, the hard-light blue hologram appearing over his palm and scanning Ultimate Midknight as it calculated a number for their tiering-system, once it gave a solid number, he gasped, "Unbelievable, his aura level shot up above fifty-thousand, how are they managing these transformations?!" he logically tried to understand it but, they were from the furthest reaches of the Universe, they had never encountered something like the Omnitrix or Ultimatrix before.
"I don't care what the scanner says anymore, I'm gonna tear his head off!" Valeria, clearly enraged at the sight of Albedo's aura level being higher than her own, lashed out by clasping her hands together and opening her palms in her opponent's direction.
"Valeria don't be foolish, you're only twenty-two thousand isn't going to make a dent," Volt insisted nonchalantly, slowly floating out of the way of her charging attack, though Ultimate Midknight stayed perfectly still, almost as if he were waiting for something.
Harmony was on the edge of her seat, the sight of Ultimate Midknight made her smile brightly, glancing back to her mother who continued to chant to herself under her breath, "How about now?"
"Not yet…"
Valeria ground her teeth together and growled, charging as much of her power into a vibrant pink sphere of energy as she could, collecting and growing larger than the average basketball, "I'm gonna annihilate you completely into dust, I don't care if I tear this entire planet in half, no human can have an aura of fifty-thousand!" the energy sphere shook the air around them with immense pressure vibrating the atmosphere.
"She said the entire planet…" Harmony whispered, not understanding what they were waiting for, "How much longer?!" she shouted in her loudest whisper.
"I'm almost ready, just a few more seconds…" Gwendolyn had gathered most of the Mana she needed to perform the spell she had planned, even casting it on someone as powerful as these Cosmians. They were literally strong enough to resist mystical reality-warping if they put enough effort into it, so she had to ensure they were caught completely off guard by the amount of magical energy effecting them.
Valeria's blood soaked smile reappeared on her face as her energy attack had completed charging, "Finally, say goodbye, human!" she willed the golden energy sphere forwards at high-speed, launching it at Ultimate Midknight who didn't move an inch, nor did he flinch when the attack made contact with his surrounding aura.
The violent golden energy collided with the aura collected around Ultimate Midknight's body, he made no physical movement to stop the attack, he simply watched as lightning sparked from the friction of the colliding forces. As though it were a dull-blade grinding against solid-stone, orange sparks flew about but, it made absolutely no head-way on breaking through his defenses. Volt was astonished by the effortless feat, even having perfect mastery over such power, as a human; it was the most impressive thing he'd ever seen, and if the other two were capable of power like this, did that mean the first Cosmian they took out, was holding back against them? It did seem as though he was trying to talk to them instead of fighting, which was more than a little odd since their entire culture revolved around battle.
Volt watched as Ultimate Midknight raised one of his arms, opening his hand, and swiping it through the air at the energy attack still pressing against his aura; his gesture literally dispersed the attack, the orb faded into the air like smoke, and he did so effortlessly, leaving Valeria in shock and awe.
"That isn't possible! No way! No way! No way!" she shouted, throwing a mini-tantrum as her vibrant-pink aura shot up around her body, lighting cascading from her skin like a conducting-rod.
Volt gave an exasperated sigh and spread out his gleaming-white wings to either side, "Clearly you can't handle them on your own, you toyed with them too long, and look what happened. If we have to report this, I'm putting the blame on you," as he approached, something about his aura now that he was simply stretching his legs, so to speak, made Harmony's heart race in her chest. Like a fear for her life to grab her Mother and run as fast as she could away from the city, away from the planet, away from him. He was at least on Albedo's level, she could tell now that even with the Ultimate form active, they were only equals at best, there was no way Midknight was as casually superior to him as was with Valeria.
"Now!" Gwendolyn shouted, prompting Ultimate Midknight's eyes to snap open beneath his helmet, it was his cue for them to execute one of their many emergency strategies, "Ianuae Eas Arcticum!" it was almost an unfamiliar feeling, announcing her spells to the world before they took effect but, it seemed to focus the spell to a higher degree when spoken so she didn't take any risks.
Ultimate Midknight dematerialized from sight, in a burst of incomprehensible speed, even Valeria and Volt momentarily lost track of him until he reappeared behind the latter, placing him quickly in a full-nelson just as Gwen's mystical aura covered him, whisking them both away at absolute instantaneous speeds. They were gone, leaving Valeria alone with Gwendolyn and Harmony, though she was quite confused as to what just happened… she calmed down, taking a deep breath, she ran her blood slicked hands through her hair not caring about what she left behind in her long dark locks. "Whatever you just did, I'm going to punch you until you undo it…" she said calmly, floating forwards toward them.
"It was just a teleportation spell, unfortunately that form Albedo took is a little too strong to be duking it out above the city, so we've got contingencies," Gwendolyn spun her wooden staff in her hand casually before aiming it at Valeria in her finally spin.
Valeria giggled a bit, "Let's see… one of you has an aura of eleven-thousand and… awe, it's only two-thousand for the red-head," she casually cracked her knuckles one fist a time, also tilting her head until her neck cracked as well, "If he's still on the planet, than I can just beat on the both of you until he gets back… he shouldn't have too much issue with just a fifty-thousand aura."
"Something tells me your relying way too much on those numbers you keep bringing up," Gwendolyn announced, if for no other reason than to distract her opponent and buy time.
…
Celestial was laid out with two different EMT specialists at his right side and Julie still monitoring his slowed vitals on his left side; Cooper and Rook were watching over him as they listened to the city shaking blows being exchanged outside, "Do you think we should provide some sort of assistance?" the latter suggested.
"I'm not totally sure there's much we can do right now, they're fighting on a level we could never catch up to; Cosmians don't have any weaknesses to exploit, you just have to be stronger than them to survive an encounter," Cooper sighed as another violent shaking overtook the building as rubble and drywall dust rained down overhead.
Julie caressed the side of Celestial's chiseled bearded face, rubbing her thumb over his glowing skin, still sparkling with golden regenerative energy, she knelt down, whispering into his ear from just an inch or two away, "C'mon, Ben, your family needs you…" she whispered, and at the sound of those words, his heart rate increased to a normal rhythm again, she noticed this with her stethoscope and gasped, prompting Cooper and Rook to glance over at them. "C'mon, Ben," she said louder this time in a full speaking voice, "Your family needs a hero!"
The sound of her voice and those words dug themselves deeply into his subconscious, rooting themselves in his dreams until they pulled out from the darkness. Celestial's eyes snapped open with a furious, blazing, golden energy consuming his pupils in holy-light.
…
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