Chapter Text
SZ: *mutters while playing on PS4* Come on...come on...DAMN IT! FCKING BEZELGUESE!...guys, just...just start things off. I need to kill this damn dragon with exploding scales! Wait...I mean capture for this quest and...UGH!
GT: Eh, you'll get it later. May need to put it aside for a bit.
SZ:...Maybe…*puts the controller down*Fine...fine…
Z0: Time for writing!
SZ: We own nothing aside from original content. Begin st-*notices a shadow over us*...please tell me that's a cloud blocking the sun.
GT: *looks up* It is not. *leaves*
Z0: Here boy! *giant demon wolf lands and destroys the place*
SZ: AHH! DAMN IT!
"Makoto?"
"Yes, Tsubaki?"
"What is that on your nightstand?" Tsubaki asked, pointing at a bulky device with a basket of fruits and chestnuts by it.
"Oh, Ben made it using Greymatter before he and Rook clocked in for their job," Makoto explained, "Someone tosses the things in it and they make a smoothie for me to drink since I can't really do anything from using that Mana-powered Astral Finish."
"I see," Tsubaki noted
"Anything?" Noel blinked.
"Has to be food!" Makoto corrected, "And no! Mine!"
"Mou~" Noel pouted.
"I only want what I want to drink coming out of this machine, so no Noellie you can't experiment recipes with it!" Makoto reaffirmed strongly.
"Mou~"
"...Kajun, I swear to the Celestialsapiens that if you touchy, Imma do the worst thing to ya that I can imagine when I'm allowed to move my body," Makoto warned.
"Phooey," Kajun pouted.
"Still can't believe you forgot you were in a body that wasn't fully trained up to handle an Astral Heat," Mai admitted, nibbling on what appeared to be a granola bar with tentacle suckers poking out of it, "Where did you say this recipe came from again, Noel?"
"The planet Cascareau from the Andromeda Galaxy," Noel replied.
"It is a cluster world of aquatic life forms," Tsubaki added, looking away from the snack, "Apparently they have the richest aquatic cuisine in the universe."
"And they make tentacle granola bars…?" Makoto pointed out with a deadpan look.
"Apparently so…"
"I'm not complaining," Mai shrugged.
"To think Noel is capable of unintentionally creating alien cuisine," Kajun noted in surprise.
"Thank god for Upchuck," Makoto sighed happily, "Eats all the stuff Mai can't and Noel is distracted by the cute."
"...I'm conflicted on who's cuter...Upchuck or Ditto…" Noel admitted, sheepishly poking her fingers together.
"Don't you also ironically like Ball Weevil, too?" Makoto pointed out.
"Why's it ironic?" Mai asked.
"Ball Weevil is a tiny little insect type alien," Tsubaki explained, earning a reaction of realization from Mai.
"That spits up exploding katamari!" Makoto added.
"Makoto."
"What? Tell me you don't think that goop ball he coughs up that grows the more stuff he collects isn't like a Katamari." Makoto argued.
"..Sh-she does have a point," Noel admitted.
"See? Noellie agrees with me."
"Honestly…" Tsubaki sighed, "...Excuse me. I need to go do something."
"Fine," Makoto nodded a bit as Tsubaki walked off and left the room, "...Noellie, close the door."
"Hm?" Noel blinked, closing the door, "Why?" she asked with an adorably confused expression.
"She's hiding something and I don't want her to hear this," Makoto stated.
"Beg pardon?" Mai blinked as Kajun raised a brow in interest.
"Tsubaki and Rook are doing some secret project and are trying to hide it," Makoto explained, "I dunno what it is exactly, but I do know the name of the list...Well, it was more of a file but still, I know what it was called more or less...Teenage heroes."
"Like Ben?" Noel asked.
"Exactly! ...And well now kinda us…" she pointed out, "We have Teenage bodies, so it counts!"
"True. Perhaps it's a side-effect of being brought here by a Chronosapien or perhaps just a random pick and we were all 'lucky' to be selected," Kajun noted.
"I subscribe that our bonds of friendship dragged you here!" Makoto smiled, "But seriously; at first, something like this wouldn't bother me...but then I recalled an old conversation I had with Ben, saying he might not be the only teenage hero here on Earth...so I propose this, ladies: we make it our mission to find out what that project Tsubaki and Rook are trying to hide from us!"
"Hmmm…." the others all muttered.
"What?" Makoto blinked.
"Nothing. It just feels...that with all the nonsense that's happened, we expected you to suggest we do something more...insane," Mai explained.
"Hey...it's more exciting than going fishing...I mean what could go wrong with both Magister Tennyson and Patelliday watching the guys?" Makoto argued.
-"I've been plundered!" Patelliday shouted as he was carried off by a humanoid robot with a giant crab-like right arm.
"How!?" Ragna asked, running alongside Ben.
"They noodled him!" Ben explained, holding out his hand, "It's this fishing trick Rook showed us!"
"Oh come on!" Kevin complained, kicking the boat's motor, "Ugh…"
"We'll catch up! You boys go help Patelliday!" Max shouted as Rook kept Kevin from demolishing the motor.
"'Be a guide for Undertown for some Plumbers taking a day off' the job listing said. 'There shouldn't be any problems. More than likely, it'll be fishing with a bonus of whatever you catch' the job listing said," Ragna growled, "Nowhere did it include 'Plumber getting abducted highly likely!'"
"Hey, it's not like we planned this!" Ben argued as they chased the robots into a cave, "How was I to know Patelliday would fall for a stupid fishing trick? I blame that on Piscciss Volan diets...I bet he was trying to eat the arm too."
"Well did you count on there being ROBOT! SPACE! PIRATES!?" Ragna barked.
"Shut up and chase!" Ben snapped.
=Ditch the humans. The boss will not like if we don't bring him lunch!= one of the robots spoke.
"I think I'm the catch of the day!" Patelliday panicked.
"EH?! They want to eat you!?" Ragna panicked, "What kind of freaky deaky shit is this!? Who eats other sentient species!?"
"Several dozen other extraterrestrial lifeforms!" Patelliday replied.
"We're not gonna be able to catch him at the speed we're going," Ben noted as he turned on his Omnitrix, "Time for an oldie, but goodie."
With that, he slapped down on his Omnitrix, letting out the green flash. In the instance of the flash, Ben's body transformed. His body grew taller with off-white scales coating his entire body. He lost a pinky but gained pale-green webbing between his remaining fingers as they grew out into black claws with his feet turning into two-clawed feet with the same webbing between the two toes and a green fin growing out of the back of his heels. His mouth swelled up to let his new razor sharp fangs be visible as his eyes turned a solid green with a green and pale-green lure-like antenna growing out of the top of his head while a green fin grew down the back of his head down to his waist and alongside the lower halves of his arms. A black loincloth, neck armor, and wristbands replaced his normal attire with the Omnitrix appearing on his green belt.
"Ripjaws's time to shine!" the alien declared, his voice deep and gravelly, "Better hold on, Ragna."
"Wait, wha…?" Ragna began before Ripjaws grabbed him by his head and jumped into the water, his legs and loincloth fusing together into a long black tail, "?!" 'God damn it, kid!'
"Huh...Ripjaws. Now that takes me back," Max chuckled before adopting a pondering stance, "Say, Kevin, how did you even hide his bite those times?"
"Eh, they came and went depending on if I needed them or not," Kevin replied before frowning as smoke sputtered from the engine, "Aw come on!"
"This is most unfortunate," Rook spoke, "I thought this was a Plumber boat…"
"Ah she is...had her since my old days on the force," Max sighed.
"Well that explains it…" Kevin muttered, "I think I got a fix. Rook, help me!"
Rook nodded, taking his ProtoTool as they began working on the motor. Max looked off as he spotted Ripjaws jump out and tossed Ragna, who tackled over one of the Robot pirates. Ripjaws roared as he tackled one over and chomped its head unit clean off. He chewed it a few times to crush it before spitting it back out.
"...Well that's not nightmare fuel to anyone who catches you…" Ragna muttered, punching one of the robots before punting it into another.
"I forgot how awesome Ripjaws is!" he laughed, stabbing his claws through one of the robots before swinging his arm up and slicing it in half down the middle, "Haha!" he laughed, lunging and biting the arm off another, "Hang on, Magister Patelliday!" he shouted before biting the head off another robot.
"I seriously can't believe we're doing this…" Mai whispered, peeking into the living room for any sign of Tsubaki, "...Coast is clear…"
"It's either this...or deal with Makoto complaining about being bored…" Kajun countered.
"...Fair enough," Mai muttered as they began to look around, "See any sign of her laptop?"
"No, not really. Maybe it's in her room?" Kajun offered.
"Maybe…" Mai muttered before a few moments of silence passed as they looked, "So...appearing in the past and turned back into teens...That wasn't expected, was it?"
"No...no, it was not," Kajun admitted, "Though to be honest, I've been able to mitigate the shock with such wonderful technology this era has in comparison to our own time in the near two hundred years from now. To think that we actually had the means for intergalactic travel right underneath us! And computers far more advanced than the ones in our era, even!"
"Kajun. Kajun...settle down…" Mai advised, "I know it's amazing...like, really amazing. But you need to calm down and focus on the task at hand."
"Yes, yes, right. Finding a laptop…" she sighed.
"Good thing Noel is keeping an eye out for Tsubaki," Mai sighed, "...I'll look around the house. You see if you c-"
"What are you two doing?"
"Gh?!" Mai tensed as she turned to see Gwen standing in the front doorway, "...Ano…hi?"
"We're snooping into our friends secrets." Kajun blurted, "What...she does magic! For all we know, she has some kind of lie detector spell she uses to keep Kevin in line," she argued to Mai, who just stared at her in disbelief.
"I don't...but that's a good idea." Gwen muttered, pulling out a little pocket book and scribbling a little note down on a page, "Sadly, Kevin doesn't have a tell like Ben does."
"He does?" Mai asked.
"His left eye twitches when he tells a lie," Gwen replied.
"I'll need to make a note of that," Kajun spoke, "I get the feeling...he tries to get away with a lot."
"Like you wouldn't believe…"
"I'm sure they can't get into much trouble fishing though," Mai smiled, trying to change the topic.
"HAHAHA!" JuryRigg shouted as he climbed into a robot and took it apart from the inside before jumping from one to the next and the next, "FIX FIX FIX! With one difference!" he cheered, standing atop one of the Pirate robots but it now had 6 claw arms, "Get 'em, Greg!" he laughed as it charged and began tearing apart the rest of the robots that jumped them.
"Greg?" Ragna asked when JuryRigg landed on his shoulder.
"He looks like a Greg!" he laughed as it tore apart its former comrade robots.
"So we just keep going down this tunnel?" Kevin blinked as they continued down the path they took Patelliday.
"It's the only path from here," Max said as they drove ahead.
"What is that sound?" Ragna asked as Ben flashed back to normal.
"Rapids?" Ben blinked.
"Nuts…." Max spoke, seeing the water...drop down ahead of them.
"Oh...the artificial waterfall," Ragna recalled.
"I think I'm starting to hate this place…" Kevin muttered.
"So...we all gonna scream our heads off?" Ben asked.
"Right there with you, kiddo," Max spoke honestly.
At that, their boat went over the edge as they began riding down the waterfall. The group of males all proceeded with screaming their heads off in panic. Ben slapped the Omnitrix...only to morph into Rath.
"WATER!? WET?! RATH DON'T DO WATER!" Rath panicked.
"Dumbass! Change aliens!" Ragna shouted, shaking Rath.
"Rook!" Max panicked as Rook used his ProtoTool to fire a split cable that anchored to two rocks, slowing the boat down to a halt.
"Oh I love that thing…" Kevin muttered, "Also...I think I'm gonna hurl…"
"Do it in the boat and you swim…" Ragna grumbled.
"Lemme tell ya somethin', awkward new partner! Rath doesn't do water, so keep the water offa Rath!" Rath barked.
"Oh yeah...Forgot Appoplexians hate water in large amounts," Kevin recalled.
"Seriously...they're tigers…" Ragna complained.
"I said large amounts...ain't you ever think how scary it'd be being stranded at sea…" Kevin argued.
"Uhm...a little help?" Rook grunted, struggling to hold onto the ProtoTool. Rath and Kevin grabbed onto it and helped relieve the pressure of holding the entire boat up. Rook tapped his tool as it began slowly lowering them down.
"Ugh...I was hoping today wouldn't be this insane…" Ragna groaned, "Yeah...a fishing trip sounds simple..when you're not dealing with FUCKING ROBOT PIRATES! ...In fact, WHY ARE THERE ROBOT PIRATES!?"
"I'm starting to think maybe this has something to do with all the missing ships in the news," Kevin grumbled, "I mean, come on! Pirates...missing boats...Am I the only one who's watched pirate themed movies?"
"Last one I saw was when Ben was six," Max recalled.
"Wait...where's...BAKA!" Ragna snapped, seeing Rath let go to shout at the water that was dripping on his back.
"Lemme tell ya somethin', waterfall!" Rath snapped before he meowed in shock upon seeing the ProtoTool which kept them from falling...swinging past his head.
"...Kevin?" Ragna asked calmly.
"Yeah, man?" Kevin replied in equal calmness.
"Good news; I'm not punting you off the boat," Ragna informed...before punting Rath off towards the water below before they proceeded to continue their fall, "The idiot will break our fall!"
"AH!" Rath cried, slamming into the water...floating for a second before sinking. Rath raised his head to gasp for air before the boat landed on his head, making him bite his tongue as he sank down again.
The guys all gasped for air as Max grabbed the capsized boat to keep it from floating away. Rath surfaced, growling in panic as he grabbed Ragna and Kevin in his flailing as he began dunking them along with himself.
"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" Rath cried.
"Oh! For! The! Love! Of!" Kevin snapped between dunks until he managed to smack the Omnitrix, replacing Rath with Water Hazard.
"Well…This is embarrassing." Water Hazard muttered as he let go of them and swam over to help turn the boat.
"Anytime you want me to do a job for you, you have to pay triple the regular price, kid," Ragna seethed.
"That is fair…" he replied, "Also, one day...you will say my name…"
"Hmph. You beat me, I'll do that and drop the increased price for my services," Ragna snorted.
"Okay kids you can be macho all you want later." Max sighed as he climbed back into the boat, "For now we need to find those pirates," he spoke, grabbing Kevin and Ragna and pulling them in.
"We should hurry. Who knows what they plan to do with Magister Patelliday," Rook grunted, climbing in.
"Oh don't you worry about Patelliday. He can take care of himself," Max smiled.
"Motor's gone…" Kevin groaned.
"I got it," Water Hazard sighed as he raised his arms and began blasting jets of water, propelling them across the water.
Further ahead of the subterranean river system and deep below the waters was indeed a gargantuan alien vessel. It moved into place below the pier where boats passed. From inside, a small army of the Robot pirates typed away at computers. At one computer, a radar showed that two passenger yachts were about to pass over them.
The pirate an alien with dull aquatic green skin, black tentacle like hair falling from his head and forming a beard sat in a captains chair. He wore dull red pants and a shawl around his shoulders. His left arm was replaced with a golt prosthetic with a glowing red bladed hook at the end. His right leg likewise had a peg like replacement of the same material.
"Switch to full power!" the alien captain shouted.
=Aye-aye Captain Kork!= one robot declared, hitting a button.
With that, a whirlpool formed. As it began spinning, it headed to the top of the water. The two yachts could not escape its pull as they were dragged into the vortex. It sucked them all the way down to the depths of the whirlpool and into the alien vessel. Once they were left in the middle of the platform, the semi-permeable forcefield keeping the water out turned back on.
=Ship is ready to Bottle, captain!=
"Excellent! Engage bottle crew!" Kork ordered.
=Engaged. Yarg= one of the robots replied as a ring formed and swept over the ships, trapping them in giant glass bottles before a cork was jammed into the ends and sealing the ships within.
"Now then...how's my lunch coming!?" Kork demanded as he scratched his beard.
Patelliday grunted as he was tossed on several sacks of flour. He looked as the Robots in the galley milled about, preparing various alien vegetables. They were using their sharp fingers to slice them up and some cooked up alien meats.
"Now this is an unpredictable predicament!" Patelliday grunted as he tried to loosen the ropes on his hands. He then turned to the sound of screaming, "And it sounds like I'm not the only one you caught!" he realized in concern for the innocents in danger.
"That way…" Ragna and Kevin spoke, pointing past each other.
"..." the others sighed as they just waited for them to agree. Ben was taking the time to let the Omnitrix cool down and Rook tuned his ProtoTool. Max decided to take out a laser knife as he began whittling a stone with it.
"NO! THAT WAY! YOU WANNA START SOMETHING MAN!?" they asked, grabbing eachothers' shirt before fighting.
Max said nothing as he held his hand out and tripped them letting them fall out of the boat, "3 whole minutes." he spoke finishing a statue in the shape of a bear, "Oh best work yet."
"Good work Grandpa." Ben smiled sitting up as Rook pulled Kevin and Ragna back in, "Kay we're going that way." Ben pointed to the path with the least rocks jutting out of the water.
-line break-
"I'm Hungry!" Kork shouted, "Where's my lunch?"
=Yes, Sir, Captain Kork= two robots from the galley spoke, carrying in a hover platter with a giant dome over it.
"Ya know, I was just thinking about how wonderful the local seafood is, and then I wondered..." he began, raising his hook, "I wondered why I wasn't smelling anything cooking!" he snapped.
=Ta-Da!= One robot said removing the lid to show Patelliday as he munched on the prepared sushi served along with him.
"I'm not technically local." Patelliday smiled, swallowing his pilfered snack.
"SUSHI!?" Kork shouted, "I don't want Sushi! I want it cooked!" he snapped at the robots.
"Now don't get your britches in a twist." Patelliday scoffed, "I wasn't gonna let you eat me anyway." he spoke before looking at all the bottled ships with people held within, "Well...would you look at that. There's a bit more to this caper then what's for lunch"
"...So Gwen caught ya, huh?" Makoto deadpanned at Mai and Kajun.
"Yep," they nodded.
"You know she might tell Tsubaki what we're doing and now she'll hide it better," Noel added.
"...Ahh dang it…" Makoto muttered, "Now what?"
"You don't have another hair brained idea?" Kajun giggled, "Oh no...You just thought of one, didn't you?" she asked, seeing the cheeky smile forming on Makoto's face.
"Oh...oh I do~" Makoto smirked, "First...we need a distraction."
"Like?" Mai asked.
"How about a sudden whirlpool in the harbor?" Noel asked, pointing to the TV.
"Well...that's not normal…" Kajun noted.
"...Mou~! I'm missing some action~!" Makoto whined.
"Oh! All that water reminded me!" Noel realized before holding up bandages and a tube of lotion, "Time to change your bandages!"
"Aw nuts...okay everybody out," Makoto sighed as Noel began unbuttoning the Beastkin's pajamas, "Mai, Kajun...try and figure out how to get that info out of Tsubaki's laptop."
"What? Do you want me to make a device that can hack her laptop from another room?" Kajun joked before seeing the smile on Makoto's face, "No...no!"
"Just ask Blukic and Driba," Makoto encouraged.
"Won't we get in trouble if they figure out we're trying to hack a Plumber agent's laptop?" Mai asked.
"Not if you tell them it's for something secret~"
"...ugh...honestly…" Kajun sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose a bit.
"You got anything better to do?" Makoto argued, "The guys are fishing, so no Omnitrix to obsess over."
"...Fine…" Kajun sighed, "Mai...while I do that, keep me informed on what's happening here at the house."
"Okay," Mai replied.
"And Noel, don't touch the smoothie maker while changing Makoto's bandages," Kajun deadpanned, lightly tapping the back of Noel's hand that was reaching for a banana to put into the machine.
"Aw…"
"Well...least the guys are having a good time fishing," Makoto offered.
"Honestly, a day away from the usual insanity...was it too much to ask?" Ragna grumbled.
"You asked for it and got a new deal of insanity. It's why I don't tempt fate as often as I did when I was a kid," Kevin snorted, "The day I asked for something new…" he pointed a thumb over at the motor, which was far more advanced than usual with a black and green circuit design with engine boosters and the Omnitrix emblem on it, "I met him, absorbed energy from the Omnitrix, and ended up being able to turn into ten different forms that ended up in a hybrid state for an entire year and stuck in the Null Void for three."
=I gave you an out...but no...you had to keep fighting me= Ben's voice countered from the motor, overhearing him =I can still floor you if your nostalgic for the old days. Some Cannonbolt for old times sake from the gladiator ship?=
"Gladiator ship?" Rook asked, "You were both abducted by one?"
=And the live broadcast pretty much confirmed the Omnitrix being real to the universe= Ben noted.
"Wasn't my fault…" Kevin shrugged.
=Really...none of it?= Upgrade asked =Ya can't think of a single part of that event that...wasn't your fault? How about the time you almost botched our escape? Or we could flash back further to the moment where I should you how my powers work so you'd stop losing…=
"What makes you so nostalgic today, Tennyson!?"
=Scoreboard…= he chuckled.
"I didn't lose that much…" Kevin argued as Max and Ben laughed, "What?"
"Oh, son, trust me...Ben is in the lead," Max sighed, "Just the other day, remember?"
"That counts?!"
=Oh it counts!=
"What?" Ragna snapped.
=Kevin unloaded his shotgun wedding...on me!=
"Shotgun wedding? Wh…" Ragna began, pondering for a moment before groaning, "Let me guess...Female Tetramand?"
"Princess Looma," Max confirmed.
"...Well, you got three years to find some shmuck to beat her, kid," Ragna noted.
=Ah...yeah, I figured...No thanks to Kevin!=
"You're never gonna forgive me for that are ya?"
=Not 'till I'm free of this...So get to thinking, car boy= he then stopped =Uh guys...I just brushed against something…=
"Any idea what it is?" Max asked.
The Omnitrix emblem slid down to the underside of the motor before going back up =Hey, Grandpa? Remember those divers who were trying to steal eggs from a krakken in a lake near Washington DC?=
"Shaw and his men? What about them?" Max asked.
=...I think one of the eggs hatched=
"...What is a krakken?" Rook asked.
At that, the water was breached by a large monster. Its skin was shades of olive green along its underside and dark cyan along its top. It had four legs ending in webbed hand-like front claws and legs along with a very dinosaur-like head with a mess of yellow crooked teeth/fangs with two tentacles extending from the sides of its jaws. Its emotionless silver eyes looked down as it spotted the boat and its occupants.
=That...that's a Krakken…=
The Krakken roared, shaking the cave around them. It lunged, only for the boat to drive off, letting it just dive down. The guys screamed in panic as the spike on its head poked from the water as it chased them.
"Faster, Ben, faster!" Kevin shouted.
=I'm giving it all she's got, even with Upgrade!= Upgrade replied.
"WHAT KIND OF ALIEN IS THAT!?" Ragna snapped.
"That's just the thing...it's not an alien; it's native to Earth!" Max shouted.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Ragna barked.
"You'd be amazed at what isn't an alien on Earth," Max noted.
=Later Grandpa!= Upgrade panicked, barely avoiding a tentacle that tried to slam the boat =Alright, may need to switch to another alien!=
"Perhaps an electrical alien. With all this water, it could act as a conductant for the attacks to hit the Krakken," Rook suggested, "Perhaps Feedback?"
"Wait...but...who's Feedback?" Kevin asked, not noticing the slight flinch Max gave.
=None of anybody's business…= Upgrade growled before separating from the motor =Okay, electric alien time. How about Shocksquatch?= he tapped his emblem and Crashhopper took his place "Crashhopper? ...Grandpa, how many days do I have saved up on vacation time?"
"You're not cashing them in to step on Azmuth," Max deadpanned.
"Imma do it one day!" he declared, "...Uh...Why hasn't it attacked us?"
"It might be going for an underwater attack to break the boat," Kevin guessed.
"Hmm...Big fish...big bug…" Crashhopper muttered before snapping his claws, "Rook, I need your grappling hook."
"My grappling hook?" Rook pondered, but still complied, "Why do you need it?"
"Because I know one thing fish like," Crashhopper replied before jumping up to the ceiling, wrapped the cable around a stalactite, and dropped down, holding onto the hook above the water, "Bait."
"You...are insane…" Ragna muttered.
"Shh!" Crashhopper sushed.
"...Did you ju…"
"Shh!"
"Heh-heh. You got su…" Kevin began.
"Shh!"
"Ben, I…" Max began.
"Shh-shh-shh! Don't scare the fish," Crashhopper scolded.
After a few moments, the krakken emerged from the water and ate him.
"Did he just let himself get eaten?!" Ragna exclaimed before the cable on Rook's Proto-Tool was pulled after the krakken, "...Aw shit."
"Hang on boys!" Max shouted as they were dragged off by the beast.
"Whoa!" the boys cried out as Rook barely held onto his Proto-Tool.
"Wait, wait, wait. The one I've been reading up on that appeared a few weeks ago...is you?" Tsubaki asked, her laptop open as she pointed at a woman wearing a black bodysuit with a purple sash around her waist, purple gloves, and a cat mask over her head aside from her mouth and a purple ponytail on it.
"Just some moonlighting," Gwen replied with a shrug, "The one issue was learning how to tap into my Anodite heritage just enough to simply change my eyes and hair instead of my entire body."
"Huh...interesting," Tsubaki noted, "If you hadn't told me the downside to training with your grandmother, I'd say take her offer up," sighed sighed, "I don't see why she can't move back to Earth though."
"That's grandma for you. She's a traveller," Gwen noted, "Still, this is quite an interesting project you're researching with Rook. I wasn't even aware of some of these."
"We had to check deep into Plumber archives for some of the older ones we found from the 1920s and 30s even," Tsubaki noted, "It's amazing at what they had to cover up at times...In fact, I'm amazed of how many teenage heroes our world has...er...had...ugh. Makoto's right..time travel is annoying..."
"Tell me about it," Gwen sighed, "The last time I did it, I caused a bad timeline to occur because of an event I wanted to change needed to happen. Honestly, if it wasn't for Professor Paradox..."
"Professor Paradox? A somewhat older man? British accent? Offers gumballs?" Tsubaki asked.
"You've met him?"
"Just before we found Noel, actually," Tsubaki replied.
"And he didn't...offer to fix things?" Gwen asked.
"No...he said something along the lines of: I want to see how this new scenario plays out. Then he gave us cryptic advice and left while ruining verb tense forever with the use of time travel," she sighed, "Something along the lines of not worrying about the Butterfly Effect."
"That's...actually new," Gwen admitted with a raised brow.
"Hmm?"
"I mean Paradox has always shown up to fix any mess we've caused with time...anything. He always comes to us…"
"I think he mostly comes for Ben," Tsubaki added, "Paradox claims Ben only pretends not to understand how time travel works."
"Of course he does…" Gwen sighed, "But you get the point...he never just lets 'things play out.' So something must be wrong...or right...I don't know, but this makes my head hurt."
"You and I both," Tsubaki sighed before looking once more, "Huh...They don't specify what was done involving…" her laptop shut off, "What?!"
Down in the kitchen, Blukic and Driba blinked twice at the computer they had set up.
"Oops. That button done shut theirs off," Blukic noted.
"What was even with that article that was on it?" Mai pondered, "I mean...that was from the 1920s, right?"
"I do not think it was a gag article, Mai," Kajun noted, "Quite interesting though. Perhaps we could convince the magister to have our group travel to where the article originated from for a patrol assignment? Could I ask you both where this town is or once was?"
"Hmm...We can run a check," Driba replied as he typed away on the computer and brought up as a map, "It looks to be on the other side of the continent in the state of California. Still goes by the name, too."
"Though th' amusement park got torn down and made way fer Disney World," Blukic noted, "Ooh! They have a Mr. Smoothy's in the town. Y'all could use it as a distraction for Ben."
"Disney World?" Mai repeated with a raised brow before whispering to Kajun, "What's a Disney World?"
"An amusement park made by the company of the same name," Kajun explained,
"We thought it was the most famous place on Earth for you humans," Driba spoke, "You...seem to like bright colors, cartoon characters, and mind numbing distractions."
"Do not forget we come from a time where we have to live on mountains to survive due to the surface being engulfed in a toxic gas," Kajun reminded, "I also have a quandry."
"Quander ahead," Blukic offered.
"Did you remember to disconnect from Tsubaki's laptop before doing all this on the chance that you're also messing with the screen on her computer?" Kajun asked.
"Blukic?" Driba asked.
"Driba did it…" he responded.
"What? No, I didn't disconnect it. I thought you did," Driba replied before magenta energy tentacles snagged the four.
"Ahem," Gwen cleared her throat as all four were turned to face her and Tsubaki.
"...Oh god! They have the same glare!" Mai freaked.
"Oh dear…" Kajun whispered in worry.
"He did it!" Blukic and Driba quickly blamed, pointing at each other.
"Just cut the line!" Ragna barked.
"But Ben is still in there!" Rook argued.
"Cut the line!" Kevin shouted.
"He is still in there!"
"Rook," Max pointed ahead as the large jagged rock they were heading towards.
"...Cutting the line," Rook gulped before the rock exploded when the krakken erupted from the water, roaring in pain before collapsing on the remains.
After a while, its jaw opened as Crashhopper fell out and into the water. After a flash, Ben resurfaced, gagging and sputtering water, "Oh god...oh...that...was one of the worst things I have ever smelled...and I have an alien whose power is unbridled stink!"
"Did you knit its intestines into a sweater?" Kevin joked.
"No…" he sighed, "You know you joke, but you're still scared of Rath." Ben smiled.
"No, I'm not," Kevin replied, looking away with a snort.
=LEMME TELL YA SOMETHIN'!=
"Agh!" Kevin yelped, spinning around...only to deadpan at Max, chuckling while holding up his badge that had replayed an audio clip of Rath.
"Alright, alright. Fun's over," Max sobered up, "Your little fishing adventure got us to an entrance over there. Hopefully, we're on the right track to finding Patelliday."
"Right," Ben agreed as Rook helped him on board the boat as Kevin and Ragna paddled it to the large entrance nearby, "Sorry 'bout the wet fur, Rook."
"It is nothing…" Rook replied...before all four men covered their noses and tried to move away from Ben, "Compared to the way you smell."
"Yeesh...and I thought that damn slime monster's lair stank…"
"What did it smell like?"
"Bugs, rotting corpses...and blood," Ragna replied.
"I am sorry, but it is even worse than Stinkfly," Rook apologized.
=What are you doing?= one of the bots demanded another, both wearing cooking aprons.
=Preparing fresh fish= the other replied, chopping the head off an alien fish's body and tossing the body into a boiling vat by the first robot.
=The captain said he wanted raw=
=No, he said fresh=
=Raw=
=Fresh=
'Yeesh...and I thought Blukic and Driba argued,' Patelliday thought, lying nearby on a preparation table as he watched the two bicker.
While they were distracted, he took the moment to break the ropes tying his arms together. Some of it landed on a decapitated fish-head one of the robots picked up and threw at the other, hitting it in the face as the fish-head landed in the pot of hot water. A piece of rope landed on the robot's bigger arm, which he took off.
=Watch where you're going, you chum, and cut up that talking fish=
=Fine...I…=
"Um...excuse me?" one of the robots turned to see Patelliday standing on top of a fixture, "But...I don't wanna be lunch!"
Before it could react, Patelliday jumped off the fixture and slammed his feet into its chest, knocking it down onto its back. He performed a flip and slammed a kick onto the head of the other, sending it crashing down on to the other and breaking both their head units off. Pateliday looked at the two and took a bit of a piece of tentacle.
"Well, glad that we cleared that up," he noted.
The five charged through a tunnel, intent on reaching the end. Ben remained in the lead...until he smashed face first into nothingness.
"What happened?" Rook pondered as he helped Ben back up.
Kevin walked up to where Ben crashed and tapped twice, "Forcefield. Seems to be Level 3 tech from Petropia at that."
"A forcefield? Heh. Seems the past and future have one pain in the ass that will never go away," Ragna snorted as he put his hand on it...before frowning after a moment, "Damn. Dispel normally works. Freaks the assholes on the other side, too."
"Not magic; tech," Kevin replied before grabbing Rook's Proto-Tool and stopping him from firing it, "Bad idea. This thing can reflect a laser right back at the shooter with twice the force."
"And if I had to guess right…" Ragna began as Max tried charging the shield, only to end up crashing against it, "Brute force won't work as well."
"Urg...Ben...a little help?" Max asked with a groan.
"Alright. Now which o…" Ben began before a small alarm came from the barrier before it dissipated, revealing Patelliday by a switch, his hand pressing it.
"Pateliday?" Ben asked in surprise.
"Told you he could handle himself," Max smirked.
"Not bad old timer…" Ragna muttered.
"Oh, now don't you start with me, young man. I might not be as spry as you youngins, but I can still fight with the best of them," he argued, slurping down another piece of seafood he stole from the galley, "Plus…" he pulled out a red blaster filled with water with the muzzle part resembling an clawed hand, "It helps to find an ammunition storage."
=Unknown DNA signature detected= the Omnitrix went off before a yellow light scanned the blaster =DNA sample acquired. Storing in Playlist 7=
"Well then...that's cool...and creepy cause that thing is a sentient creature's arm and not a cartoony gimmick…" Ben muttered, making the others cringe.
"Well...I'll be adding possible murder charges," Patelliday noted, a bit greener around his gills than normal, "Now hurry up. They're about to cast off."
"Any idea what their scheme here is?" Ben asked as they all prepared their weapons and abilities while following after him.
"Hang on it'll come to me...I gotta ruminate on it…" Patelliday responded.
"He's a ruminator," Max smiled.
"Of course he is," Ragna muttered.
The team found the ship just as it was moving away from the catwalk which connected it to the cave port they used to hide in. The group all jumped and managed to enter just before it fully submerged into the water.
"Full forward!" Kork ordered, standing in the ship's mainbridge as his crew worked on the consoles, "Just a few more ships, and our set of Earth vessels is complete. Ready for sail!"
=Aye C...= one of the robots began before one of the doors leading into the room was kicked down.
"Aw nuts...I wasn't quite done ruminating yet."
"I just really wanted to get to the Swashbuckling!" Kevin smiled, covered in metal as he morphed his hand into a cutlass.
"I'm just looking forward to kicking some ass after today," Ragna smirked, his blade already out.
"...How…?" Kork frowned as his crew immediately came to his side.
"Let's just say the Magister you captured wanted to figure out your plans for himself," Ben answered.
"Indeed. Although to be honest, I was expecting something a bit more…" Pateliday began as he pondered, trying to figure out the right word.
"Impressive?" Rook offered.
"Impressive?" Kork repeated, "...I'm stealing boats and putting them into giant bottles!"
"That's it?" Ragna asked in disbelief.
"People are in them," Pateliday noted, "Honestly, was expecting it to be more like a large-scale hostage situation."
"...Well what a let d-wait…" Ragna began before narrowing his eyes at Kork, "What are you planning to do with the bottles?"
"Isn't it obvious? I be selling them to the highest bidder! These boats are worth a fortune to certain...galactic collectors."
"...And the people on the ships?" Kevin asked with his own frown.
"Well...who can refuse free slaves? Provided they're still alive of course one the air runs out in the bottles," Kork answered.
"..." all six shared looks.
"Yeah, no way we're letting you go now," Ben stated, "You're going down."
With that, he activated the Omnitrix and slapped down on it. In the instant of the green flash, Ben's body changed, becoming taller and more muscular. Red armor engulfed his head, torso, lower arms, and lower legs with spikes emerging from the undersides of the arms, the back of the legs near the ankles, and on both shoulders while the rest of his body was covered in gunmetal grey plating. Metal tubes with transparent parts emerged from the back and connected to a mask on his helmet by going under the arms as transparent glass formed on the backs of the red armor on his arms and on the front of his lower legs, showing nothing but pressurized water inside. A black visor covered his eyes before green lights illuminated behind it as a pair of siren-shaped containers forms on the sides of his head with the Omnitrix appearing on his chest.
"A Cascan!" Kork gasped before snarling, "Ye mangy beast! Men, kill 'em all, but save the scurvy Cascan for me!"
"Whoa!? Wha-what is this guy?" Ben asked, confused and holding his arms up as ports above his wrists blasted streams of water which washed away the robots, "Oh...that...can be handy. This guy's like Water Hazard." Kork stabbed at him only for him to blast the floor and propel him over; Kork swung his hook arm only for the port on the alien's wrist to blast a spurt of it in the shape of a blade to parry the hook, "Whoa! Okay...This guy's got better water control than Water Hazard."
"Another water guy?" Kevin grunted, slashing a robot.
"A better water guy!" Ben smirked as he blasted water bullets with his other arm as they tore through several robots, "I think I'm gonna call this guy...Overflow!" he cheered, forming his water into two blades as he blocked Kork's hook and swung around, slashing another robot and swinging Kork away from him, "So what's the deal with not liking this guy, man?"
"Ye scurvy barnacles interfered when I did this back in the Andromeda Galaxy. Ye may have stopped me then, but I still claimed an arm from yer kind! This time, there will be no stopping me!"
"That explains this," Pateliday noted, firing his swiped 'blaster' at a robot, tearing right through it.
"Ye raided my treasury!?"
"Treasury? With all those blasters and swords, I thought it was an armory," Pateliday replied.
"...Remind me to execute the idiot who put it in the wrong room!" Kork snapped
"Yeesh...this guy really is a stereotypical pirate…" Ragna groaned, using his sword to slice a robot's arm off before backfisting one that tried to sneak up on him, "Only thing he's missing is a parrot."
"Reminds me of that weekend that we took out Cassiopeia way, you and Xylene, me and Appida Lou," Pateliday reminisced as he and Max stood back to back. Overflow over hearing them wretched -causing the water tanks on his head to bubble- at the prospect of his Grandfathers romantic life.
"Pateliday."
"Yes, Max?"
"DUCK!" Max barked, the fish alien ducking down in time to let Max fire his blaster at a charging bot.
Pateliday spun around Max, "Leg sweep!" he roared, using the move to knock a robot off its feet before slamming a fist into the robot's head, shattering it, "What's keeping you, newbie? The air in them bottles is getting mighty stale."
"I am on it, Magister," Rook replied, typing away at the console nearby.
"Work faster!" Ragna called as he sliced down another robot, "Alright, that's it! Everyone duck!" for a moment, the orb on the back of his fist opened, letting out a faint azure light, "Carnage…" he swung his sword twice, creating two large slashes of red and black energy that clashed together, tearing apart several dozen robots, "SCISSORS!"
"That guy keeps showing off some pretty neat tricks," Overflow noted between parries with Kork.
"That was awesome!" Kevin exclaimed.
"That stuff gave me the heebie-jeebies," Pateliday admitted with a shudder.
At the computer Rook was working on, the screen changed from orange and red to black and green. One by one, the bottles filled with ships were released, floating up towards the surface. The console opened up for Rook and deployed a small blue remote with a black button on it. He grabbed the device and smiled.
"That is it! Prisoners liberated!" Rook called out.
"Good work, partner!" Overflow grunted as he turned his water blades into whips and kept Kork at a distance.
"Ye filthy bilgerats! I'll make sure you're all…" Kork snarled.
"Hey, Kork!" Kevin called.
"Huh?" Kork turned in time to be slammed in the face by Kevin's fist now in the form of a mace, sending him crashing into the console near Rook, his hook stabbing into the machinery.
"Put a cork in it," Kevin smirked before alarms began to blare as the console started sparking.
"What have ye done?!" Kork snarled, pulling his hook out.
"Nothing you didn't have coming," Overflow replied as everyone moved back from the exploding consoles before loud groans of metal buckling echoed.
"Oh, that's not a good noise," Ragna noted before water started breaking into the chamber the bottled ships had been in, "Yep. Not a good noise at all."
"Oh we're not sinking, are we…?" Overflow realized as water filled the room where the ships in bottles used to be stored, "Oh we're sinking! We are sinking!" he panicked, "Oh right...this guy breaths underwater…" he took a deep breath.
"But we can't!" Kevin and Ragna barked as the paneling began to crack before them.
"Abandon ship!" Pateliday called.
After a while, the water exploded as an escape pod surfaced. Its lid bent and bubbled as it was kicked off. Overflow and Patelliday surfaced as the guys all gasped for air within the pod. Kork was bound together by rope and his own tentacles. The two got onto the escape pod just before Ben's Omnitrix timed out.
"Well, boys, wrap this up," Pateliday ordered...before pulling out a fishing pole and sat on the edge of the pod, "I want to see if the fish are still bitin'!"
"Oh no! Not again…" Ragna groaned, "I am never accepting another fishing job for a long while…"
"You're out of luck!" Kork declared, "You'll never get your humans out before they run outta air!"
"Oh, I think otherwise," Kevin replied as Rook held up the remote and pushed the button...causing the corks to pop out of the bottles as said bottles dissolved away, freeing the ships, "You were saying?"
"Urgh…" Kork groaned in defeat.
"It looks like that this trip has caught us a whale," Rook noted.
"Oh no…" Pateliday groaned, bringing a hand up to his head in disbelief.
"Seriously? D...Did you seriously just say that?" Ragna deadpanned.
"Terrible," Ben deadpanned.
"Uh, wh-whuh-why was it terrible?" Rook asked in disbelief.
"They mean that it was a groaner," Max explained.
"I did-I d-don't-uh...a groaner?"
"This guy's got a lot to learn," Ragna pointed out.
"Tell me about it," Kevin sighed.
After that eventful day of fishing the guys were finally able to drive home, after hours of dealing with thanks and complaints from the boats. They locked up Kork for many crimes, and finally rangled up some fish. Granted they had to keep Patelliday from eating anything they caught.
"I'm not eating that freaky alien slime fish." Ben spoke as they walked up to the door.
"But it is a delicacy." Rook spoke.
"Dude...no offense but we've had it with fish after today." Kevin argued.
"Agreed…" Ben sighed as he unlocked the door, "Besides, the girls probably had a boring day compared to ours."
"Yeah. At home all day dealing with a bored Makoto...they must be dying for something fun to do!" Kevin laughed as Rook opened the door. All three of them stopped and noticed the mess before them, "Oh my god we've been robbed!"
"That is impossible. The house's security system would've gone off if someone attempted to…" Rook began.
"B...Ben? Rook? Kevin?" Noel spoke, peeking out from behind the overturned couch, "...Oh thank goodness...you're home."
"Noel, what happened?" Ben asked.
"Well...you see…" she took a deep breath of air before, "Makoto wouldn't let go of the project Rook and Tsubaki are working on, so she roped us into trying to find out what it is. But Tsubaki teamed up with Gwen and suddenly it was us vs them, but I didn't want to do this so I hid. And before I knew it, I hear shouting and Makoto is biting people, and mean words are said, and all sorts of silly things that only happen when Makoto is left unchecked or is temporarily against anyone! And I didn't know what to do and before I knew it, the fighting got taken outside, but I'm not sure if it can be called fighting as Makoto was mostly laughing maniacally in between saying Ow over and over again…" she stopped to take another gasp of air, "And then the hurricane of nonsense flew into Tsubaki's room and I've heard the sounds of loud messy chaos coming from in their. So I kept hiding…"
"...Is...is that so?" Rook asked, cautiously looking back and forth at the mention of the project.
'...I knew I forgot something during the trip!' Ben mentally exclaimed
"Alright spill it space cadet, what's this project so all of us can get on with our lives and Makoto doesn't start jumping you when your guard's down." Kevin sighed.
"She'll do it to…" Noel whined.
"...Well...I…" Rook began nervously, almost as if he felt a pair of eyes staring straight into his soul if he said anything.
"Come on partner…" Ben said before smirking, "Or we could put you in the Kaka Clan village...while all of them are high on catnip."
"...You would not…"
"Oh wouldn't I?" he smirked further.
"...I..."
"Oh good. You're home," Tsubaki spoke as she walked in, brushing her hair a bit, "Apologies for the mess. Makoto...was getting a bit angsty."
"Yeah, because yo-MMPH!" Makoto's voice began before it was muffled.
"Okay I'm putting an end to this mess...everyone talk now." Ben sighed.
"We are in no mood...we fought Pirates...Patelliday almost got eaten! The bad guy put boats in bottles!" Kevin snapped, "And Ben almost drowned us several times...so please just tell us what you are doing."
"Please do…" Rook begged, "I have read what happens when a Kaka Clan member is high on catnip...and I do not want to imagine what happens if the entire clan is high on it."
"...I was hoping to keep it hidden, but I knew it was gonna get out eventually…" Tsubaki sighed as she put her brush down, "You see...We've been thinking of planning a trip."
"You have?" Ben, Kevin, and Noel blinked.
"We have?" Rook blinked in equal confusion.
"Hmm..." Ben crossed his arms in interest.
"Yes...a rather interesting trip. A vacation if you will," Tsubaki added
"MMM!" Makoto's muffled voice could be heard.
"Hmm…" Ben arched an eyebrow again.
"..."
"Well if I wanted the truth I could always get it out of you…" Ben sighed, "I'm gonna take a nap…"
"Wait. Just like that?" Kevin asked.
"I'm probably gonna have to fix whatever mess this leads to anyway." Ben shrugged walking off into the house.
'Phew…' Tsubaki and Rook gave mental sighs of relief.
"...Fine. If you guys are going on vacation, it'll give me time to work on the car," Kevin shrugged as he walked off.
"I..suppose I'll go help Gwen-san out with Makoto," Noel muttered as she headed off as well.
"...That was close…" Rook spoke once he and Tsubaki were the only two left in the room, "Good move on lying about that vacation."
"It's not a lie," Tsubaki simply answered, making him blink, "Once Makoto's healed up and Kevin and Gwen have left, you and Ben are coming with us girls...with you and Makoto being a distraction for Ben."
"Hmm? Whatever for?"
"Just trust me…"
SZ: And so ends another chapter...and if you caught the tase..you know what the next chapter is...and I am SO HYPED!
Z0: Indeed we are we are gonna begin some real shenanigans levels nonsense fueled epicness in the coming chapters.
SZ: Oh indeedy do...and we are gonna love every moment of writing those chapters! Read adn review folks! Normally GT would end things off with a bang, so...Z0?
Z0: Drop the bomb! *giant cartoon bomb falls towards us only to stop inches from our heads* Huh….would ya look at that…
SZ:...that was cl-
*BOOM!*