The Ben and Ruby sass is back in full force!
Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
"Benji, Benji, Benji, BENJI…" the familiar voice of the Cat cut through the air like a knife, forcing everyone to look into the still lingering cloud of multi-colored smoke. A flash of dark purple and white light surged from within the cloud, along with some unearthly sounds that just made everyone on edge.
"You thought I couldn't fight on my own?" the Cat asked. Through the smoke, the vague shape of the Curious Cat could be seen before it began to grow. In a few seconds, a pair of eyes flashed in the smoke, the glow from them cutting through the smog.
"Oh, God. Can't stay down, can you?" Ben frowned, as he reached for the Omnitrix. "Listen, Garfeldi. This is the part where you yell 'rahhh! I'm gonna kill you', and then we beat you up real bad. And then you rant about morality or something. It's how most of these situations end."
The Cat stepped out of the smoke after Ben's taunt. Admittedly, they looked much more intimidating than usual. They sported a black and white color scheme, stood on their hind legs, and had an appearance much closer to that of a lynx. Their claws grew larger and sharper, and instead of a polygonal checkerboard patterning, they gained black stripes much more similar to other cats.
"This story is ending now." The Cat growled, slamming their fist into their paw. "If your advantage was my unfamiliarity, you have nothing now. I'm much more adept in this form."
Ruby made a face. "...you ripped off Rath."
"No. No, RATH ripped off me!" The Cat frowned.
"Actually, speaking on that-!" Ben held up the Omnitrix. "You were really pissing me off with how you were using my aliens. Like, I was ready to scream at you for not knowing half of their powers and combos." Ben activated the Omnitrix, and smirked. "And would you look at that? I got a full house now."
"So?"
"You wanna see a master at work?" Ben smirked.
The Cat narrowed their eyes as they watched Ben turn the dial. They lowered themselves lower to the ground, like a tiger ready to pounce. Ruby cocked Crescent Rose, loading in a fresh bullet and taking aim.
"Go ahead. Try something," Ruby threatened.
Ben smirked. "Let's go with something classic." He slapped down the Omnitrix and held up his fist. Black and green liquids ran down his arm, coating his body. His body morphed and molded, growing taller and slimmer. Ben stepped forward, and looked at the group.
"You guys need an Upgrade? I bet your Dust is running low." Ben smirked.
"Are...are you mocking me?" the Cat asked, "Where's Rath? Where's Swampfire?!"
"Goes to show you what you know." Ben smirked, as his friends plunged their weapons into his back. The techno gunk traveled up their weapons, coating it in black liquid and improving them drastically. They looked bigger, sharper, stronger, especially in the case of Max's armor. The old rusted suit now better resembled a modern Plumber's uniform, with plenty of tech integrated into it.
"Hope you don't mind me spoiling you, Grandpa." Ben said. "And that I took some liberties of changing up the suit."
Max smirked. "I noticed."
"What did you-?" the Cat hissed.
"It's the name, bud!" Yang smirked, readying her now Upgraded gauntlets, "Upgrade."
Emerald was hesitant to stab Ben in the back. "I...I, uh, don't know if I-"
"Oh, just do it." Weiss said, forcing Emerald's weapon into his back.
"And that...that's just-?" Emerald muttered.
"Doesn't hurt if that's what you're worried about," Ben reassured her, "Mechamorphs are made for this, literally!"
Emerald watched her weapons get coated in black and watched in awe as they were changed. The blades on her weapon never looked so sharp.
"Groovy." She grinned, beholding the gleaming blade.
The Cat growled. "Cheap trick. Is this your answer for a final showdown?!"
"Yeah. I'm not giving you the respect of a serious beatdown." Ben stretched his arms back, way, way back. "And here's how I start it off!" Ben's arms whipped forward, slamming into the Cat's chest and sending him flying out of the forest.
"Gwendolyn!" Max called out. The giant jackalope raced forward and let Max mount the saddle, along with Neo. There wasn't too much with Neo's weapon to really work with, so she didn't Upgrade her weapon.
The group rushed out of the forest, weapons ready to fire at any given moment. The second they were out of the forest, the Cat pounced at them, focusing specifically on Ben. Ruby fired some laser blasts from Crescent Rose, but the Cat evaded them by warping around. The Cat smashed down on Ben after a warp and laughed.
"You should have taken me, seriously, Benjamin! Especially when fighting in such a fragile form!" He smirked.
"Hey, durability for regeneration seems like a fair trade-off," Ben scoffed, "Plus, I always forget I can do this!"
From Upgrade's eye, Ben fired off a green laser right into the Cat's face, knocking them off. Before they even hit the ground, Emerald activated her weapons and her magic. While she couldn't open a way back home, an easy short-range portal was more than within her capabilities. The portal opened right under the Cat, letting them fall through before being tossed up in the air in front of Emerald. She launched her chains into the air and pulled them around, slashing them into the still airborne Cat. The cat most furious growled and grabbed the chains, pulling Emerald into the air.
Emerald winced, but didn't hesitate. She pulled the trigger on her weapon, and suddenly, the Cat was electrocuted. The Cat screeched, letting go of the weapon.
Emerald's eyes lit up. "Do these last forever?!"
"I wish!" Yang said, firing herself into the air with two enhanced shotgun blasts. The Cat was still stunned by the sudden electrocution, so their guard was still lowered when the blonde brawler landed a quick combo of left and right jabs to their face.
A multitude of ribbons pulled the Cat away, as Blake swung them around and around and around, eventually releasing them and sending them flying into a Glyph. Weiss stabbed her weapon into the ground, and a multitude of ice crystals shot up, all flying towards the Cat stuck on the Glyph.
The Cat yelled, opening its maw to fire a laser. The beam shot out, shattering most of the ice. "HA!"
But that was when a powerful slash cut into the Cat's back, courtesy of Neo. She narrowed her eyes at the Cat's monstrous form before landing a few thrusts against their hide.
"Will you STOP, Trivia?!" the Cat roared, spinning around to try and grab her.
The name...is NEOPOLITAN! the multi-colored mute countered.
The Cat was suddenly socked in the face by a fist, ZOOMING across the battlefield. The fist quickly reattached to Max's arm.
"A rocket fist?" Max asked.
"It seemed cool." Ben shrugged.
"Well…it is pretty handy." Max admitted.
"Nice one!" Yang smirked before grabbing hold of Crescent Rose's blade, "Ready?"
"Ready!" Ruby nodded, "Rose-Xiao Long Fastball!"
Ruby spun Yang around, before boosting her up high with her Petal Burst. Yang was 'released' at the peak of the attack, sending her flying towards the Cat. Yang's upgraded Ember Celicas smashed into their stupid face, and she wasted no time leading into a punching combo.
Left, right, left, right, each punch Yang landed damaged the Cat more and more, but the last punch she threw actually didn't land. The Cat split themselves in two at the waist, letting Yang's fist just soar through the now open space. Her violet eyes looked up to see the Cat's manic grin before their giant claws slammed into her back and knocked her down. The Cat reconnected their body before racing towards Blake. The feline Faunus' cleaver-sheathe and newly repaired katana parried all manner of claw strikes before Neo came back into the fight and stomped on the Furious Cat's tail, making them yowl in pain and letting Blake uppercut them in the chin.
"Gotcha," Blake smirked.
Now it was Ben and Ruby's turn to strike back. They kinda deserved it considering how much shit they'd been through because of this deceptive feline. Ruby began by blasting the Cat with the largest laser the modified scythe could muster, but the feline once again split in two, just in time to dodge. Bad move. The laser was a distraction. Ben pounced up behind the Cat and grinned. He focused as hard as he could, as two "extensions" of his body popped out of his back, then two more from those doubles. Then more and more and more-
Ben didn't know how he really did it, but this new feeling, this clear conscience, it was allowing him to soar to new heights with his aliens. And no where was it more noticeable than with the towering Upgrades.
The Cat spun around and looked up at Ben's new arsenal, surprised by the sheer amount of extensions Ben now sported. Their eyes jumped between each of the new additions, concerned about what they could actually do.
"Oh...well, that's...interesting," the Cat blinked.
Ben and the extensions swarmed the Cat from all angles, slamming fists into him all over. The Cat screamed in pain as each hit connected with the strength to take down any normal opponent. In a few seconds, this fight would all be over-
BOOM. A laser shot through Ben's back and exited his chest. While he didn't feel any pain, he was confused as to where the attack came from. "What the-" Ben asked.
"Oh, come now..." A voice chuckled. "Think I'd waste my energy fighting you~?"
It was...the Cat, smoke and stray pixels fluttering around their mouth after they had fired off another bolt of lightning. They waved mockingly at Ben and the others.
"There's two of them?!" Emerald asked before a claw grabbed her and Neo by the head, lifting them up off the ground.
"Who said anything about just TWO?!" a third Cat cackled.
Shit! I totally forgot they could duplicate! Ben cursed, as the first Cat knocked him away.
"They're Schrodinger's Cat?!" Weiss asked, before Emerald and Neo were suddenly tossed aside. The third Furious Cat turned towards Weiss and lunged at the heiress, all of their claws outstretched. Myrtenaster and a Glyph were raised up to block the sudden attack.
"Fun little name for it, I'd say!" the copy of the Cat grinned.
Ben smirked. "Actually, this works out perfectly. Hey, Cat! Wanna see a funny joke?"
"Humor me." The Cat frowned, as Ben slapped the Omnitrix down. Upgrade's form was replaced by Echo Echo.
"And what am I supposed to find funny abou-"
Echo Echo then duplicated into at least six different copies.
"...I'm going to bury you," the main Cat threatened.
Ben smirked. "Try to bury all of us. I dare you."
"One marked headstone for each of you then!" all of the Cats cackled. The Cat that Ben had blasted with Upgrade's powers, pulled themselves back together and shifted their eyes towards Ruby. They spun around and lunged towards her, claws coming down and clashing with Crescent Rose's blade. Yang, Weiss, and Blake went to help her, all of them readying their weapons.
The second Cat turned to pixels and raced towards Ben's array of Echo Echo clones, taking a page out of Ruby's playbook. Soundwaves fired out from the Sonorosians' mouths, forcing the Cat to dodge out of the way of the wall of sound. The Cat rematerialized and slashed at some of the clones, knocking them into the sky. Before the Furious Cat could slash into the next clone, chains wrapped around their arm and Emerald leapt over their head. The Cat blinked when Emerald pulled on the chains, forcing the Afteran to punch themselves in the face.
As for the third Cat, Max's wrench grabbed hold of their waist to keep them still. Neo charged in atop Gwendolyn, hooking the Cat with the jackalope's antlers and tossing them into the air. The multi-colored mute then leapt off the saddle to try and impale this version of the Cat, but to no avail. The Cat managed to block the sudden strike before lashing out and kicking Neo back down to earth.
Ben kept on making clone after clone, sending them running towards the Cat. "Look at you!" The Cat yelled, throwing out every insult they could. "Sacrificing everyone you can to win! REMIND YOU OF-"
Ben responded to this worn-out jab by taking a deep breath. "WALL!" Clones suddenly appeared beside him. "OF!" The clones leaned back. "SOUND!"
The soundwaves slammed into the Cat from all directions, their ears ringing from the unrelenting sonic assault. They tried covering one of their ears with their free hand, but it did very little since Emerald's chain was so perfectly wrapped around their other arm. Their words might've made Ben a bit too angry. Noted. They steeled themselves for this next part. They took their hand off their ear, letting the sonic screams assault them fully, before they disconnected their arm, freeing themselves from the chains, and reattached the limb. They raised both of their clenched fists into the air and slammed their claws down into the ground with enough force to create a small shockwave. Emerald and all of the Echo Echo clones were knocked off their feet, giving the Cat the opening they needed.
The Furious Cat lunged at Emerald, the illusionist managing to get off a few good shots before she was forced on the defensive. Claws and sickles clashed in a duel before a flash of green illuminated the side of the Cat's face. A web line splattered against the side of the deceptive Afteran's face before their head was yanked to the side. Spidermonkey gave a mocking salute before Emerald took advantage of the distraction. She slashed into the hide of the Cat with precise strikes that seemed to cut just a little deeper than normal.
As for the Cat that Team RWBY were fighting, they couldn't do much against the assault of combo moves that was coming their way. Weiss kicked things off by spinning Myrtenaster to its ice Dust chamber and stabbing it into the ground. A sheet of ice extended out over the ground, nearly removing the Cat's footing as it raced towards Ruby, their claws digging into the ground to stabilize. They growled and turned towards the heiress just in time to see Yang bring down her fists on the ice as her hair flashed with flame. The impact caused a massive explosion of mist to engulf the area around the Cat.
Freezerburn.
The second Furious Cat just rolled their eyes and slashed at where Ruby stood only to cut through empty space. The Cat blinked, tilting their head a bit before bullets slammed into their arms and shoulders from both sides. They fired off lightning from their maw in one direction to stop the assault before firing on the other shooter. While the bullets did stop, there wasn't any cry of pain or sound of impact. They missed. They growled in annoyance before Blake dashed out of the mist and began attacking the warped Cat, her katana cutting into their hide before they started parrying and counter-attacking. But while Blake was attacking, the sound of a sniper rifle rang out and Ruby flew out of the mist to add her own attacks to the assault. Katana and scythe clashed with fang and claw.
Ladybug.
Weiss seized the opportunity presented by the chaos surrounding the Furious Cat. As the Cat was preoccupied with Ruby and the sniper fire, Weiss summoned her Glyphs beneath her feet. With a graceful leap, she soared through the air, her rapier gleaming with a frosty aura. She descended upon the creature, aiming to deliver a precise strike.
At the same time, after her most recent attack, Ruby leapt away to give Blake the opening she needed. The feline Faunus raced in and attacked; her katana was a blur of deadly grace as she launched a rapid series of slashes towards the distracted Cat from another angle, aiming to exploit any openings created by its attempts to parry and counter-attack.
The Cat couldn't contend with such a dual threat.
Weiss' rapier struck true, ice exploding out of the impact site and froze over a portion of the Furious Cat's arm and shoulder. Blake sheathed her katana and used the power of the cleaver blade to knock the Afteran off their feet, letting them thud back to the ground.
Checkmate.
Ruby cocked the bolt lever of her weapon and nodded at Weiss. The heiress understood the plan immediately. She spun in place and summoned a Glyph in front of the sniper's barrel. Peeking through the scope, Ruby fired off round after round at the Cat. Every shot managed to hit, exploding and freezing over the Cat's body, just like how Myrtenaster's attack had done so before.
Ice Flower.
Ruby continued to fire her sniper rifle with pinpoint precision, each shot adding to the growing layer of ice that encased the Cat's form. The creature struggled to break free, but their strength was waning rapidly.
"No..." The Cat groaned. "Not gonna go do-"
With a powerful leap, Yang brought her flaming fists crashing down onto the frozen Cat, shattering the ice and sending shockwaves of fire and force rippling through its body.
BURNING ROSE.
The Cat couldn't hope to counter the move and Yang's punch sent them flying.
Meanwhile, Neo, Max and Gwendolyn surrounded their copy of the Cat. The lying Afteran flexed their claws, challenging them to come and get them.
Max fired off some laser blasts from his suit, making the Cat dodge. "New toy?" The Cat sneered.
"Courtesy of Upgrade," Max smirked.
"Cute," the Cat suddenly turned into pixels and easily closed the distance. They reared back their claws and took a swing at Max, but he seemed unphased. When the Cat's claws tore through them, they tore through a perfect glass recreation. Neo smirked as she watched Gwendolyn charge in from the side and smack the Cat right into the waiting strike that Max had lined up. An energy mace had manifested over his trusty wrench, making it perfect to deal even more damage. The mace swung and batted the Cat over to Neo. The trickster, now former Duchess of Desserts, smirked and waited for just the right time to backflip, landing a kick right to the Cat's chin.
Max rushed in, slamming into the Cat with his mace. For all his pain, for all that guilt he carried- it felt therapeutic to just unleash all this rage on the bastard.
"You tried to take my grandson from me. You tried to ruin my future grandaughter-in-law's life. And you killed ALYX!" Max yelled, switching the wrench to a sword.
"One can go...to great lengths to get what they want. Isn't that right, Sir Forever Knight?" the Cat taunted.
"Not my fault I got my body taken over. You try fighting back after losing an arm!" Max smirked, as he completely severed the Cat's right arm.
"Yes but unlike you, that's not a big DEAL for me!" the Cat grinned, reattaching their arm and continuing the fight.
Spidermonkey suddenly slammed into Emerald, the Cat having used the web line against the Arachnochimp. They smirked and sharpened their claws, ready to end the both of them.
"As much as I loved that little watch, I can live without it. After all, if I end you, then Ruby loses her will to go on! She becomes hollow, a perfect fit for me to leave in! I've wondered what I'd look like in RED!" the Cat taunted.
Ben replied by throwing a web in their face. "Dude, you're really 'possessive' right now. I already know how this is gonna end."
The Cat ripped the web off their face and snarled. "Amuse me."
"With you, six feet under."
"Ha! Then you must not have been paying ATTENTION!" the Cat roared, lashing out and missing both of their targets, Ben and Emerald leaping out of the way of the incoming claws, "There's only ONE thing that can 'kill' me! And you're not IT!"
"Gonna debate that." Ben countered. "I have a form here that can squash you like a bug. Wipe you from this plane..."
Keep your focus on me, stupid cat.
"Except you won't use it, will you? Far too dangerous in the wrong circumstances, riiiiiight?"
"This situation is dangerous enough." Ben declared.
Nahhhh.
The Cat's eyes widened. "Then you just became of use to me again..."
"Besides, do you really want all their insults to be true? That you're not as good as me with the aliens? That you can barely use Echo Echo right or fly with Big Chill?"
"That one can fly?!"
"You're just proving their point."
"Tell me...what's the name of this alien?" The Cat asked.
"Its name is..." A smile curled on Ben's lips. "Grey Matter."
"Grey Matter?" the Cat repeated, "Hmmm, that one does sound powerful."
"Oh yeah, it's the nuclear option," Ben lied.
"Nuclear? Not entirely sure what that means but...if you're offeri-!"
That's when Emerald struck. First, a barrage of bullets fired into the Afteran's back, followed by the chains wrapping around their entire body. Emerald pulled the trigger and electrocuted the Cat, the surge of power flowing through the chains.
"You wanna see him!?" Ben grinned, slapping down the Omnitrix. Grey Matter took his place, as the Cat grit his teeth.
"THAT'S YOUR MOST POWERFUL!?" The Cat yelled.
"Nah. I'm not taking you seriously. Although..." Ben's eyes darted around the battlefield. "I do know how I can 'stop' you."
"Really now!?" The Cat snapped the chains off his neck. "GOOD LUCK TRYING IT, SHORT STUFF!" The Cat rushed at Ben, who crossed his arms. Just before the Cat was about to pounce on him-
"Omni...Drive!"
"Omni-what?" the Cat asked before Gray Matter's mech assembled around him, "That's cheating."
"No, it's called 'knowing how this watch works,'" Ben smirked.
The Cat growled. "So, what. You have a tiny little suit. What can you-" Ben opened up his palm, and fired a tractor beam at the Cat. The Cat gasped, as Ben lifted them up.
"Tractor beam." Ben said snidely. "Stops your molecules from moving. Fun little trick, ain't it?" A set of thrusters roared to life from the back of the suit. The Cat's eyes widened in fear, shaking their head in denial. Ben just nodded enthusiastically before taking to the sky, pulling the Cat with him. The Furious Cat screamed as Ben pulled them into the air, Emerald landing a few parting shots just to give one final "fuck you" to the deceitful Afteran.
"No no no no no no!" the Cat screamed as they disappeared into the sky.
As for Max, Neo, and Gwendolyn, their Cat was the last at their full fighting form. The Rusted Knight and the former Duchess of Desserts took turns attacking the monstrous feline, wrench constructs and straight blade slashing into their hide from practically all directions. When one strike was blocked or parried, another would sneak in and exploit the opening. And then there was Gwendolyn. The massive antlered rabbit made sure this duplicate of the Cat couldn't escape. Whenever Max or Neo batted them aside, the giant jackalope was there to knock them back into the beatdown.
"Maxwell! Trivia! ENOUGH!" the Cat roared, grabbing Max and Neo by the wrists and slamming them into each other, only to shatter them.
I already told you. The name's NEOPOLITAN! Neo insisted. The silent trickster landed on the end of the giant wrench, using it as a springboard to land the final blow on this version of the Cat. Both of her feet slammed into the Cat's face, snapping some of their fangs and knocking them over to land right on top of the one Team RWBY had defeated. The two copies grunted upon impact with eacchother.
"Two down," Max said.
"One to go," Ruby nodded, looking up to see the slight green flicker of Ben's thrusters.
But her attention was quickly brought back to the defeated Cat copies. They seemed to glitch out of reality before transforming into a giant collection of pixels that raced into the sky above.
"Oh...that can't be good," Yang muttered.
In the sky above, the Cat could only continue to scream as Ben continued to rise, further and further into the heavens above. Ben just smirked a little at hearing them scream their lungs out, before those screams turned to laughter.
"What? Think this is like Space Mountain now?" Ben asked.
"I don't know what that is. You have to remember, I never asked about everything from your world. But I do find something amusing. Your friends won!" the Cat answered.
"And that's good for you?"
"Very," the Cat smiled as the swarm of monochrome pixels appeared and wrapped around the Cat's form. They grew even more dwarfing even their Rath and normal Furious forms.
"What the hell?" Ben asked, suddenly struggling to keep the Cat in tow.
"Ooooh. Interesting, you have a weight limit." The Cat grinned.
Ben looked at the readout for the tractor beam, a warning starting to flash that his tractor beam was reaching its limit. If the strain continued, other systems would suffer, including the thrusters.
"Here, why don't I lighten the LOAD!" the Cat roared, grabbing the Omni-Drive Galvan by the dome of his mech suit.
Ben gasped, before slapping the Omnitrix. The Cat was released from the tractor beam, but now faced a new challenge. Big Chill was now in his clutches, and he spread his wings to establish dominance.
"Now, onto 'what else you did wrong'..." Ben said, turning intangible.
The Cat's claw phased through the Necrofriggian, freezing as it passed through, much to the Afteran's confusion.
"I really was just scratching the surface," the Cat muttered.
"Now you get it," Ben rasped before the Cat began to fall. They floundered a bit in the air, flailing around like anyone would before they smirked and turned into a cloud of pixels that darted away.
"Oh no you don't," Ben said, diving down towards the Ruby and quickly changing into Jetray. "Ruby!"
Ruby nodded, before turning to the others. "You guys don't mind catching up with us, right?"
"Not at all! We'll be right behind you!" Yang promised.
Go kick their ass! Neo nodded.
Ruby nodded, as she and Ben flew off. Ruby landed atop Jetray. "Where's the idiot heading?"
"Dunno. Looks like we're headed to some...castle?" Ben asked.
Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Good."
"Heard you were there. Is that why you needed the parfait?" Ben asked as he raced after the Cat.
"Yup. Because of a smug little brat of a prince..."
"Sounds annoying." Ben grimaced.
"Oh, you have NO idea." Ruby said. "...hey, by the way, can you turn into a green form when we land?"
"Like Swampfire?"
"Yeah, that works!"
Ben and Ruby soon reached the castle, which sounded like it was in chaos. Ben and Ruby could see foot soldiers trying to run towards some threat, but then they were immediately cut into pieces by the Cat.
"Yeesh." Ben said.
"They were annoying, but they don't deserve to be in pieces..." Ruby frowned.
"Even me and Emerald didn't do that. We just knocked 'em out," Ben said, diving down towards the Crimson Castle.
In the Crimson Gardens, the Red Prince was cowering behind a hedge as some of his guards engaged the now mad Cat. One of the toy guards tried to strike at the Cat with their trumpet-halberd, but the weapon outright snapped against the monstrous Afteran's thick hide. They grinned before grabbing the guard by the head. The Prince didn't even look but he could hear the sound of the guard's head being twisted off their shoulders. He'd ordered enough executions to recognize the sound.
"Don't find me, don't find me, don't find me," the Prince muttered before the hedge was suddenly cut away by quick slashes.
"Your Majesty!" the Cat greeted manically.
"C-cat! Why, how...how big you've gotten!" The Prince laughed nervously.
"Is it your birthday today?" The Cat grinned.
"N-no..." The Prince said.
"Ooooh, but yesterday was! Consider this a BELATED birthday present!" The Curious Cat raised up his claw.
"W-wait, how is this a birthday gift?!"
"Why it's the gift of ASCENSION!" The Cat was about to strike, only for a flash of green to go off followed by vines tangling up the Cat in their grip. The Red Prince looked over to see his rescuer, a green plant man partnering up with the same red-caped girl from before.
"H-huh?! The human who knows Calvin's rules?!" the Prince asked.
Ben slammed his fists deeper into the Earth, with a multitude of vines slowly tightening around the Cat and forcing him away from the scene.
"You'd really stoop to saving HIM?!" the Cat hissed.
"We don't choose who's worth saving and who's not," Ruby said before firing a few rounds into the Cat.
"But...but your friend there," the Prince pointed out, "He's green. Something...something green would save me?"
Ben didn't respond, all his focus locked on the Cat, as they were trying to break free. He began throwing out fireballs to try and stop them, the flaming projectiles cutting through the air faster than usual.
The fireballs slammed into the Cat, the explosions boosted by the fire Dust rounds Ruby was barraging the deceptive feline Afteran with.
Damn it! Ripping them apart just made them more in sync! Like they're making up for the time they missed! The Cat hissed, while they burned, How does that even work?!
Ben concentrated his flames more and more, blazing brighter and brighter. "I get it! That feeling of not being able to get help! I'd say it's not too late, but I'm not going to. You're a monster!"
"YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN WHAT A MONSTER REALLY IS!" The Cat cackled.
"Oh believe me, we have," Ruby said, suddenly appearing behind the Cat in a burst of rose petals. With a spin of Crescent Rose, slash after slash cut into the Cat's body.
"Are you never impressed!?" The Cat screamed, as their pieces went flying around, reconstituting behind the Prince. The Cat swung its claws at the pipsqueak, but Ben quickly blocked his attack with a flaming uppercut.
The Cat fell back, as Ben bound his body up with vines. "Not with you."
"You...you're actually-" the Red Prince muttered. His revelation went unanswered still as Ruby and Ben raced after the Cat again, hoping to team up on them. The Cat hissed and began to run again, turning back into a cloud of pixels and flying away. The red and green duo of Ben and Ruby quickly gave chase to stop any further chaos the Cat would unleash.
The Red Prince stood there, dumbfounded. Something green just saved him.
He looked at himself, and frowned. "Red is such an awful color, actually..."
"Your Majesty?" one of the few surviving guards spoke up.
"Hush. I'm deep in thought now..." the Prince muttered.