Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

"Lord Vilgax, we are receiving a call from an unknown number," one of Vilgax's numerous robot underlings reported as the warlord was putting the finishing touches on his latest plan to defeat Ben Tennyson and steal his Omnitrix.

Vilgax scowled. "I thought all telemarketers were to be automatically targeted and their planets destroyed."

"This message is from Earth, Lord Vilgax."

"Earth?" Now that was a surprise. Who on that wretched planet knew how to reach him? Against his better judgment, he reluctantly commanded, "Put it on."

Moments later, a hologram of a figure in imposing heavy armor appeared before him. "Vilgax!"

"Who are you and how did you get this number?" Vilgax demanded.

The armored figure slammed a fist to his chest. "I am the Forever King, leader of the Forever Knights!"

Vilgax frowned. "The leader? What about Sir Patrick? And Sir Urien? And Sir Cyrus? And Sir Enoch? And Sir George?"

"You aren't supposed to know about those yet," the Forever King said quickly. "And I got your frequency from old Plumber logs."

Unimpressed, Vilgax said, "I'm hanging up-"

"Wait!" the Forever King shouted hastily. "You hate Ben Tennyson, do you not?"

Vilgax hesitated. "...Yes? What of it?"

"I am putting together a team of Tennyson's greatest enemies to defeat him - a sort of Negative 10 - and I figured you might be interested," the Forever King explained.

Vilgax considered for a moment. The idea of working with others galled him, but...it wasn't as if he'd had much luck defeating that child on his own. Grudgingly, he said, "All right, you've gotten my attention. Who else is on the team?"

Relieved, the Forever King said, "Well naturally there's myself, and my servant the Red Knight-"

Vilgax frowned. "Who?"

"He's my robot bodyguard," the Forever King explained.

"Has he ever fought Tennyson before?" Vilgax asked skeptically.

The Forever King hesitated. "Well, no-"

Vilgax scoffed. "Then why is he on the team? Should you really have two Forever Knights at once, that seems like you're stacking the deck-"

"Also, we have Dr. Animo!" the Forever King interrupted.

"Animo? Tennyson's most recurring adversary other than myself? All right, now we're getting somewhere," Vilgax commented, intrigued.

Encouraged, the Forever King continued. "And Charmcaster!"

Even better! "And Hex?"

The Forever King hesitated. "Ah, no. He turned me down."

Vilgax frowned. That didn't bode well. "That's disappointing. And while I suppose Charmcaster is a decent enough combatant on her own, isn't she really more of a Gwen villain-"

"We also have Rojo!" the Forever King said quickly.

Vilgax gave him a blank look. "Who?"

"That biker who got turned into a cyborg by your tech," the Forever King reminded him.

Oh, right, her. "I thought she was cured."

"We fixed that," the Forever King said vaguely. "Also, Clancy!"

Vilgax blinked. "...WHO?"

"This weird bug guy Tennyson defeated this one time! They thought he was dead, but he's not!" the Forever King declared, as if that was something to be proud of.

"You're making this up," Vilgax said incredulously.

"I'm really not. Also, we have Thumbskull, Acid Breath, and Frightwig!" the Forever King added enthusiastically.

Vilgax stared at him. "You mean those three ugly clowns? From the same circus?"

"Yes!"

Vilgax had just about run out of patience. "That's even worse than having two Forever Knights on the team! In what way are they some of Tennyson's greatest enemies? They're just goons! What about Kevin Levin?"

"Null Void."

"Z'scayr?"

"Dead...er. I think?"

"Sixsix?"

"We can't afford his rates."

"Zombozo? Tennyson's afraid of clowns."

"And Zombozo's afraid of Tennyson. And in an asylum."

"So, you've got yourself, a villain Tennyson's never fought before, two one-shot villains, three goons, a witch and a mad scientist," Vilgax said flatly.

"Well, yes, but once we have you on board-"

"This is a prank call, right? Please tell me you're joking?" Vilgax demanded.

The Forever King hesitated. "What?"

"Your team only has two, maybe three or four genuine heavy hitters and an overwhelming amount of mediocre C and Z-listers. I'm not associating with pathetic scum like you.

I'm blocking this number," Vilgax said angrily.

"No, wait-"

Vilgax hung up.

"Lord Vilgax, we've triangulated his coordinates. Shall we open fire?" the robot asked.

Vilgax shook his head. "No need. I imagine Tennyson will humiliate him soon enough."

The Forever King stared at his empty screen in disappointment. "...Shit. Guess we'll have to go with that pedophile dwarf hypnotist after all."