"Wait, wait, wait, so let me get this straight. You found Chris and Chef and they were scrubbing toilets?"
"Yeah. And getting bossed around by this annoying kid too. Pretty great, right?"
"Did you help them like Courtney and Duncan?"
"Nah."
"Nice."
Loudred raised his brow as he followed alongside the two teenagers. "Aren't you two being a bit harsh?"
"No, dude, you don't understand what those two put us through," Cody continued. "Actual Hell on Earth."
"Is it any worse than everything that's happening now?"
Cody and Bridgette took a pause and glanced at each other, both taken aback by the suggestion.
"Was it?" She asked.
"Uh…" For all the crap that had happened on the island, at least they weren't faced with regular threats of Heartless maulings. "It's a pretty low bar, but…"
"Well, I don't want to suddenly be feeling bad for them, so let's just be mad at them for our standards of yesterday."
"Oh, Bridgette, there's another cave up ahead! Is the next one in there?"
"Close, but not quite. You see that tiny opening juuuuust over there? That's where we're headed."
After having split off from Alakazam, the three had rolled into their tour around the Void, taking occasional pit stops to inspect the scattered ship parts whenever Bridgette dragged them off in a new direction. After trekking around for what had to have been over an hour at that point, Cody started to get a better feel of the landscape and a better understanding of the bleak situation the residents of this "world" were forced to endure. Beyond the encampment's surrounding area were endless stretches of repeated rocks and roads. Each step was met with another trail of crackling glints of white, an ever present sign of the decaying stone they were stuck on. The purple veins were like putrid blemishes infecting a body that was near its end. Cody would think back to the many faces he saw at the camp. There were enough for the place to be considered an entire colony. To think that they all lived in what could only be described as a cluster of stardust corpses.
"Alright," Bridgette nodded, her body crouched over as she looked over the carefully stowed machinery. Alongside, the small mountain of crusted off pebbles and slabs that veiled over it, a high tech, almost mystical force field was placed for an extra layer of protection. She fiddled around with her fingers as if typing away on a computer and sent the piece away into transparency.
"Got this one covered." She stood back up and signaled the two dudes to follow her out of the cramped cavern. "No Heartless in sight. Come on. Now where did you leave off? At the end of True Cross, right?"
"That's about it to be honest," Cody responded as he ducked his way past the chiseled edges of the makeshift entranceway. "Next thing we knew, we were here."
"Well, we almost died on our way here. That's worth noting," Loudred added.
"Yeah, but we almost died like three dozen times already. That's not special."
Bridgette laughed. She was fully absorbed into Cody's stories of (attempted) might and (genuine) heroism. This was the most relaxed she'd felt since she'd landed herself into this floating wasteland. They may not have been close friends back on Wawanakwa, but it was still reassuring having a familiar face around.
"Man, that's so wild." She slung her naginata over her shoulders and wrapped her arms above it in a lax manner. "All of that happened and you're like a video game hero now. Might be because my dumb luck landed me here, but I'm so jealous."
"Yeah, it's cool seeing the sights and all," Cody wiped his finger over his lips, his boastful and cheeky side starting to sprout out again. "I wonder how Gwen's gonna react when I go dump all this on her."
"Oh. Gwen, huh?"
"Yup," Cody snickered. "I'm like a video game hero, right? So that means this is kind of like a 'rescue the princess' kind of situation."
"...Uh."
Bridgette stopped in her tracks. She bit her mouth and took an awkward breath before turning back towards a confused Cody.
"You, uh…" Her eyes shifted away, almost like she was trying to hide a growing stinkeye. "You know she rejected you, right?"
Cody's head jumped, caught off guard by the sudden retort. "Y-yeah, of course." The glee and confidence in his voice grew hoarse. The conversation had taken an uncomfortable turn. "Sh-she's missing, you know. I'm just trying to find her."
"Okay," Bridgette replied, some suspicion still lingering in her as she returned to her path. "Just checking."
Cody gulped. He should've let it go. Why didn't he? After all this time, he was ready to bury all of his past embarrassing antics behind him. But perhaps now that he started to bask in a life where he didn't constantly feel like garbage, he grew all the more desperate to forget about his mistakes. Loudred could see just how panicked his friend had become, but Cody's graceless desire to go beyond clearing his name was much too strong for him to stop. Before the wise Pokemon could get the chance to warn him off, he'd already chased after and spooked Bridgette up front.
"I-I'm not doing it because I'm trying to woo her or anything," he immediately blurted out in desperation. "She really is missing! It's the truth!"
"Whoah, hey," she tried to swat him off. "Y'know, I'm not saying you're wrong for trying to find her. You just acted really weird back on the island, so I wanted to make sure there weren't any ulterior motives going on."
"I-I swear," Cody held on to his face in mental agony. In his heart, he knew continuing to pursue this was going to eat him up further, but the part of himself that still sighed at the sight of his own sorry existence wanted to drill all the awful truths into himself. "I really didn't mean to do all of that. At least…I think I didn't."
"Look, Cody, it's not that big of a deal. Let's just drop it."
"I was stupid, okay? I'm sorry!"
"What are you apologizing to me for?" Bridgette scoffed. She tried to keep a leveled and content demeanor, but Cody's distressed pleas for self validation had started to get to her. "Apologize to Gwen. You were the one creeping on her."
That word shot at him like a pistol to the head. "Was… I really that bad? Was I a creep? Is that what everyone thought of me?"
"Well," Bridgette rolled her eyes. She would've been more than happy to keep this all to herself, but if he really really wanted to know, she'd lay it out for him. "Some people thought you were like an annoying kid brother.
"And I didn't go that far, but some of the others would call you a stalker."
There it was.
He'd dreaded it this entire time.
The gut feeling in his head of all of the times he went and made a fool of himself came back to roost. It took a while, but he finally heard from someone else's mouth what he'd suspected and was afraid to come to terms with this entire time.
How was he supposed to feel about this revelation? Solace? Validation? Shock? Horror? Disappointment? Shame? In himself? In who he was? In who he might very well still be?
The chaos in his head was loud and apparent. Bridgette, who was on the edge of annoyance right before, shifted into a look of concern, now regretful of everything she just said. Loudred rushed over to try to snap some sense back into him, but nothing his two companions were saying entered his ears. He was stuck in a trembling state of dismay, the world around him swirling and silent despite the peace, and his body building up with nausea despite the lack of vomit or sickness within him. In the corner of his eye, he could see the Phantom Gwen, who'd been haunting him since his journey began, sitting cross-armed on a small pile of rubble with a guilty look aside.
He gulped, his throat straining itself from the dry air of space. Her appearance was oddly the one thing that was keeping him grounded. That Gwen seemed to have an ounce of sympathy towards him rather than pure disgust was the sad bit of pity he needed to not feel like the worst person currently breathing. Though he knew in his heart, the fact that he was seeking comfort from what he assumed was a hallucination was sad in itself.
"I need a bit of alone time," he managed to mumble under his breath as he quickly dipped away from the others.
"Wait!" Bridgette chased after him. "You don't know where anything is here! Where are you going?"
In a reversal of Cody's pesters against her the moment this awkward situation first began, Bridgette desperately ducked in and out of his vision as she tried to pull him back on track. So wrapped up in guilt, she was more focused on snaking around the sullen boy than on keeping track of their surroundings. Though perhaps it was a relief for the both of them when she finally wound up tripping on her feet, forcing Cody's remorse attack to be interrupted while the two of them tumbled painfully atop of crumbling space rocks.
The duo groaned as they laid flat below a small cliff. For better or worse, that stumble was what Cody needed to snap back to normal. He lifted himself back up, grabbed his aching back, and continued to peer upwards towards the cliff that towered just a few feet above. Loudred ran over to check on their wellbeing. He was just about to call out to them, but a quick look forward forced both his words and face into a fearful halt.
"Wha–" For all intents and purposes, Cody spoke only to himself, yet even the hint of noise was enough for Bridgette to smack her hand over his mouth and flash out a quieting gesture.
He was too delirious to notice it at first, but the more seconds passed, the more the rough trudge of boots sounded off onto the cobbled ground. In the near distance, with only a thin thicket of purple trunks to block off the view, a bulky middle aged man looked around sneakily with the eyes of a hawk. With his graying mullet and draping pale cape, he would've looked ridiculous if his scarred and rugged body didn't exude the aura of a rogue warrior.
All three, the one who hid above and the two down below, were wide eyed in fear. Bridgette especially. Her gritted teeth had the same level of exasperation as someone who just lost all their funds in a bad gambling round. She didn't dare say a word, but if she could, she'd curse at the rotten luck they had running into him.
"I know it's around here. Where is it?" The man groveled to himself with a deep tenor.
What is around here? The parts? The camp?
Bridgette looked back over to Cody and gently placed a finger over her lips to further emphasize the situation they were in. Carefully, she nabbed on to his arm and led the both of them into a tip toe march towards a shrouded rocky ramp; their one guaranteed exit in this unexpected trap.
Slowly…slowly…slowly…
…Just her luck.
Bridgette, who had still clung on to her naginata with her other hand, accidentally kicked on to the blade that dangled near the ground and dragged both her and Cody into another messy trip. Even worse, her balance fumbled further with each step and nudge. They soon began to bump into the wall and purple knots like a game of pinball. By the time the two of them finally settled into another fall on the ground, they were already well aware of how screwed they were.
The man craned his head in their direction. What started out as a grimace quickly grew into a snide smirk. That little screw up, just the proof of their presence, was all he needed to know.
He turned back, took a single step, and propelled himself into the air and off into the eternal night. A naive Cody would've assumed that they'd just narrowly escaped a confrontation, but Bridgette knew what was coming. His back turned away and his body slowly leaving their sight, the man threw a quick flick of his wrist and signaled his horrifying lackeys to do their worst.
At first, there was silence. Cody carefully wobbled off the ground, noting that his partner had already bounced into a battle ready position. But what were they up against?
His answer came at the terrifying screech of a malformed creature that clawed through their thin thicket shield like something out of a horror movie. With its gangly wings and mouth that encompassed its entire face, it resembled an angel who'd just escaped a life sentence to hell. It was more horrific looking than any Heartless could ever hope to be. And in a way, it was just as horrific that Bridgette was already slashing her way through the creature and its cohorts while the fated Keybearer was left to cower behind. It took him forever to get used to fighting the Heartless. How did she get used to looking at these abominations with fearless eyes?
Cody looked upward as a familiar voice cried out. Loudred, who had remained situated on the small cliff this entire time, was caught off guard and was now in the clutches of a pair of these winged monsters. The Pokemon started to spring out a raucous stream of Uproars. He'd hoped to startle the two enough to force himself free, but they remained unperturbed as they continued to carry him away. The concept of sound was beneath these deformed beings.
"Loudred, hold on!" Cody shouted.
He followed Bridgette out of their failed hiding spot and got ready to swing his blade like a boomerang to his friend's captors. Unfortunately, just as soon as he ran out into the open, he was immediately greeted by the typical vault of Heartless. In the time these new creatures came for the kill, the familiar nuisances had seamlessly mixed in. It wasn't that they'd taken advantage of the situation, but that they and the winged monsters had been on the same side this entire time. Now completely distracted by the double whammy of unholy monstrosities, he could only watch through the corner of his eye as his friend was very quickly being floated off into who knows where. The further he went along, the less of a chance he had to do anything.
He started to panic and increased the frequency of his Keyblade swings in a desperate attempt to clear off his slate to tend to his friend as soon as possible. He was no longer looking at the battle in front of him and only hoping that the increased attacks would be enough to strike them all down at random.
Loudred meanwhile continued to struggle fruitlessly. He could not get a proper read on these demonic angels. They carried on like vicious mutts that ignored all inconveniences to reach their goal. Their demeanors remained still no matter how much he contorted his body to hinder their path even just a little. No mere movement was going to get their attention.
But perhaps a stabbing thorn would.
The two creatures opened their mouths and howled in a chaotic and agonized duet that pained even the ears of the boisterous bard himself. They writhed around in the air as more spikes shot into them like bullets before they finally relented and dropped Loudred to the ground in exchange for an uncertain retreat.
Pierce ran over to the Pokemon. The spikes that plagued his skin weren't just for show. The big oaf he'd just saved barely skipped a beat before running straight into the ongoing scramble. Pierce could only hear a brief and rushed "thanks" as a reward for his service. In a way, this made him more motivated. He'd led and protected such a large group for so long, the moments where he knew he wasn't alone in a fight were all the more comforting. He smiled and ran alongside the purple bard to join the other two with wiping away the wrath of the Heartless and their unsightly associates.
Slowly but surely, peace was eventually restored in the secluded rock. It was time for the four to rest and regroup, but the feeling of unease did not leave as they all laid exasperated. The metaphorical dark cloud continued to seep into their minds, it was hardly fair to call this a rest at all. On one hand, Cody and Loudred coped over the nightmarish new foes they just barely survived against by the skin of their teeth. On the other hand, Pierce and Bridgette ruffled and tore into themselves over the implications this unfortunate encounter had brought.
"So, uh, thanks again for saving me back there," Loudred spoke to Pierce as he attempted to alleviate even a tiny bit of the tense air around them. "With those two busy, I thought I was a goner for sure."
"No problem," Pierce grumbled. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration while his head just barely paid attention to Loudred's words. "I heard from that Alakazam guy you three were going patrolling and I thought it'd be safer for me to tag along." He slumped over in frustration. "Didn't expect that nutjob to show up."
"What is he doing here?" Bridgette startled the others with her sudden shrill query. "I thought we shook him off our trail weeks ago!"
"Well, obviously that didn't last," Pierce murmured in annoyance.
"Who even was that guy?" Cody asked uneasily.
"D'Void," the Void veterans responded at once with the tone of both frustration and distress.
"He's a maniac who treats this place like his playpen," Pierce elaborated, his hands balled up into fists. "Those things that attacked you earlier? Those are the Guardians. Creatures that were supposed to help keep peace around here that he went and tamed and turned into his own little bloodhounds."
Cody and Loudred looked at each other. They both noticed the behavior of the Heartless in that scuffle; how they blended in with these so-called Guardians so seamlessly. With everything that Pierce and the others have had to deal with, they felt reluctant to suggest the situation might even be worse than expected. But luckily, they didn't need to be the bearer of bad news. Pierce had already pieced it together himself.
"Of course he went and found a way to control the Heartless too," he threw his hands into the air. This was the least composed any of them, even Bridgette, had witnessed him. "You know, that explains so freaking much, I almost gotta laugh."
"What do we do?" Bridgette asked. "He was searching for something. I don't know what, but it's gotta be either the camp or the parts."
"I'll tell you what we're doing," Pierce answered. His voice struggled to return to its cooler nature. "We're getting out of here. Now."
"Wait, but," Cody's mouth was agape. "You said the ship wasn't finished yet. That there might be a weight issue with how many of you there are."
"It's flyable. That's all that matters right now." His voice still had the trailing lull of desperation. The Pierce they'd met earlier wouldn't have dared to suggest such a careless risk, but D'Void and his newfound Heartless alliance was a big enough swerve to completely toss all order off the rock.
"You," he pointed to Loudred. "You're big. Help me gather all of the parts and bring them back to the ship. And you two," he pointed to Cody and Bridgette. "There's only one left up ahead. It's the backup engine which might be life or death for us now. You two bring that back, and make sure D'Void doesn't find you."
Him…and Bridgette?
Cody looked over to the surfer girl only for her to turn away sheepishly. He almost forgot amidst the Guardian-Heartless panic, but their botched conversation from earlier quickly returned to him. Loudred could sense the white flags he mentally waved, but Pierce had already sped away at that point, too focused on saving the entire colony's asses to hear a single complaint.
Loudred quietly nudged over to his buddy and whispered to his ear. "Hey, are you gonna be alright on your own with her?"
He appreciated the thought, but Cody could've done without Loudred's worry. His definition of whispering translated to the volume of a normal speaking voice. Bridgette eyed the two with both curiosity and chagrin over their exchange. His face turning beet red, Cody replied with haphazard "I'm fine"s as he hurriedly shuffled Loudred off.
With half of the group gone, it was just the two of them left; still slightly tired and still awkward over baggage that Cody forgot to leave behind on the island. In contrast to earlier when they chatted up a storm, relieved at each other's presence, not a single word left either of them as they continued off on their way.
oOo
It couldn't have been any more than half an hour, but the trek felt like eons. Step by step, pebble to pebble, the duo made their silent march without once looking at each other. Bridgette remained steadfast up front while Cody only gleaned a quick look at her on the occasion he needed to make sure he was indeed following her and not accidentally stumbling off.
This is my fault, he stared at the ground. I should have just let it go.
Why was he like this? The writing was already on the wall. He talked to people on Wawanakwa, but he was never really part of a "group". He could feel the eyerolls and snickers behind him every time he tried his hardest at being a badass, but he would try just as hard to pretend they weren't there. He wasn't anywhere in that hidden cave hangout, nor did anyone care to tell him about it the entire time they resided there. He should've expected they would disparage him negatively behind his back. Why did he have to press on when he knew what the answer was? What was the point of confirming it to himself if he knew it would just make everything worse?
He took another look at Bridgette. Did he freak her out earlier? He doubted it. But he'd acted annoying just like he usually would. The least he could do was apologize to her. Why was something so simple so difficult to force himself to do?
Another plume of anxiety built up within him. He stared blankly at the ground with shaking fists. This dragged on and on before he finally had the courage to breath in and fervently blurt out…
"I'm really sorry about ear—"
"Hey, sorry about what I said back there."
The two blinked. Right on cue, Bridgette had turned around to offer her own condolences just as he was ready to exchange his.
"Why are you sorry?" Cody asked, genuinely confused.
"...Why wouldn't I be?" Bridgette was even more confused. "You looked all pale after all that. Of course I'd be feeling guilty about it."
"Yeah, but," he scrunched back timidly. "I'm also apologizing for being weird back on the island, you know?"
"This again?" She would've chuckled playfully, but she knew she was probably walking on a thin line with his emotions. "Hey, dude, it's cool. Everyone does dumb stuff every now and then."
"No, but," he slapped his face in exasperation. "I go and do it all the time, not just 'every now and then'. You said it yourself. I was straight up a stalker."
"Didn't say you were. I already told you; some people called you that, but I never did.
"And, well, if it makes you feel better, Gwen never did either."
Cody gave off a wry smirk as he slumped his head and gaze to the side. "I'm sure what she thought of me wasn't much better."
"I mean, she was part of the 'little brother' crowd. And from what she told me, she and her brother get along great. That must mean something at least."
"Uh huh," he nodded skeptically.
"For crying out loud," He heard her groan. "You really need to learn when to take a victory every once in a while."
Cody paused before hoisting his head around in search of the Phantom Gwen's return. He wasn't sure why, but the more he "encountered" her, the more he grew desperate to reach out to her. Maybe part of it was just for the simple confirmation he wanted that she really existed, that his mind wasn't playing cruel games with him. And maybe part of it was because, as sad as it seemed, he'd grown accustomed to her presence. If she was a hallucination, she wasn't one born out of his childish infatuation of her. She was just as sarcastic as the real Gwen was. Just as unafraid to speak her mind. Unafraid to tell Cody how she really felt without sugar coating it.
Maybe he was projecting onto this delusion as a sign that she was still out there somewhere. That once he found her, she would be just as she always was and not that ghostly image he saw fade away with his own eyes.
"...What the?"
Cody was snapped right back into reality. While he was off in his own world doing some spirit hunting, Bridgette had skipped on far ahead at an upcoming open field of rockbeds. And even further up ahead of her was a sizable piece of tech, all boxed into a square and shielded with a pale translucent glow. He would've assumed Bridgette was glad to have quickly found their assigned part, but the closer he got to seeing her face, the more he realized she'd already prepared herself for trouble.
"This thing should've been in the cave all the way up there," she pondered.
If that was the case, it didn't take a genius to understand what was going on. "It's gotta be a trap," Cody suggested. "That D'Void guy; think he set it up?"
"I don't know," Bridgette gritted her teeth nervously. Just their luck. They're running short on time and were already having a code red moment. They needed that part now and here they were being prompted into a possible stealth mission.
She continued to scrunch her face around at the situation as she stretched out the tip of her naginata over to the guarded engine. This wasn't an ideal maneuver, but they'd already been rushing before they got here. With each minute stretch, she gently slid her grip back further towards the opposite end of the pole until her hands just barely touched the sharper ends of the lower blade. She nudged her feet ever so carefully towards the engine and continued to stretch her body beyond her normal reach. Sweat trickled down her brow as she concentrated with all her might, lest her clumsiness cause yet another calamity to unfold.
With the power of her strained concentration, Bridgette finally scratched the tip of her weapon onto the engine's outer shield.
And it turned out, the incoming calamity unfolded regardless of her successful prowl.
Gashing thorns erupted from the grounds, surrounded the engine, and trapped the naginata between its slits. Both Cody and Bridgette jumped in shock. Bridgette immediately began to prod the pole around in a fruitless attempt to break her weapon free. Under her breath, she kept cursing at herself at how awful an idea this makeshift mission wound up being.
Suddenly, an enormous mound and a pair of thick tendrils emerged from below while the further half of the thorns caved in and encased the engine into a makeshift cage. Bridgette's naginata became further tangled in this mess, and as the creature below lifted itself out from the deeper depths, Bridgette too was dragged up into the air.
Cody frantically grabbed ahold of her waist and pulled her back with all his might. Her grip continued to shackle around wildly. She was scared shitless at exactly what this creature was capable of. Of course, the only things their efforts led them towards were pitiful stances in the face of their new foe.
The garish body of the Parasite Cage had now fully surfaced. With its mouth acting as the safehold, its roaring screams instead came from its flailing hands that held the same terrifying faces as the Guardians.
The duo wasn't caught in the parasite's actual cage, yet they still fell for its deadly trap. Cody's measly upper body strength was quickly giving out, and he too was lifted alongside Bridgette. There was ample time for both of them to let go and save themselves, but that window had closed. For now, they were too paralyzed in fear to think rationally as they dangled around like skewered fish ready for their demise.
The Parasite Cage's monstrous claws came lunging right at them, ready to chow down on their meal raw. The duo's response was a chaotic combination of defensive apprehension and last ditch efforts to get themselves together. Bridgette returned to wriggling her hands in all directions like her life depended on it. Cody meanwhile summoned out his Keyblade, completely uncertain how exactly he planned to defend either of them in the uncomfortable position they were in. As the arms grew ever closer, he could only pray to himself that one messy swing would be enough to knock them out.
The hands grew more gruesome with each inch and their mouth splashed around gross droplets of saliva from all their feverish chomping. They were ready to savor every last bite of their prey, but a single interference forced their grizzly drivel to get slammed into a choke.
Cody and Bridgette made passing cries as they fell back to the ground, the naginata now fully free from the parasite's bars. Up ahead, the creature was catching its breath as the mouth of its cage moved ever so slightly from an unexpected strike. Its attacker stood with an ivy dagger neatly on hand, ready for the Heartless's next move.
"Trent?!" Cody and Bridgette both gawked.
Trent made a quick over the shoulder glance as makeshift acknowledgement before skipping away from a furious slap that was ready to pulverize him. He landed himself alongside his two fellow former campers who continued to stare at him like he was an unexpected guest star of a show from another genre.
"What are you doing here?!" The two continued to blurt together like mental lemmings.
"Now's really not the time to talk," he replied. The two were so in shock, they couldn't sense his tone that had the cadence of an eye roll. "Bridgette, head straight for the mouth and keep knocking at the cage."
She snapped out of her amazement with confusion. "Uh, what?"
"Cody and I will take down the arms to distract it."
Without another word or even a fleeting chance to allow his allies to realize he'd just handed them a plan, Trent was already off, targeting the parasite's right arm. He diligently whacked the limb around, not even caring to give the two any other cue or signal. Cody and Bridgette could only look at each other with slanted mouths in place of shrugs before charging towards their designated stations.
For as threatening as it seemed, the Parasite Cage was easily caught in its own pitfall with the clean coordination of the trio. Its body was practically an object itself, so its movement was limited, only allowing itself to spin around in place. As long as the three kept to their assignments and continued to knock it senseless, there was nothing more the creature could do to fend itself.
Bridgette stabbed her naginata continuously into the bars and slowly chiseled through its mouth. Cracks formed, and its hands that had previously screeched in ferocity now wailed in agony. Just another snap and…
Two of the monster's prison bar teeth cleanly chipped off. Just like any living being would react to a sudden toothache, the roof of its mouth burst and stretched like rubber as it took in the full brunt of its collapse. It was like the Parasite Cage was resigned to its fate. There were no more retaliations from its arms, no more attempts to hide its treasure away. The trio continued to slash and prod along with no remorse until the Heartless finally gave in and faded away in a fatal retreat.
The Parasite Cage was no more. In its place was a lone backup engine, two teenagers who were quick to begin celebrating their win, and one who just stood there silently.
I gave in and actually rewatched a Null Void episode to check for accuracy and realized I remembered less about Ben 10 than I thought I did, lmao.