Early adventures - part 3

[HUNTED]

Up in Earth's orbit, once again back in the Chimerian Hammer, the Warlord known as Vilgax, who was still recovering from his injuries, was currently spending his time observing five galactic bounty hunters on his screen in the training area on his ship.

They were all highlighted by spotlights shining down over them.

The first of the candidates wore a set of purple armor, made from a shell of an assassin robot gutted by him, with purple pads covering its central joints, an alien-like utility belt, four central lines on his helmet to provide outlines for its face and hooved feet.

His name was Six-Six, a infamous genetically mutated Sotoraggian bounty hunter from the planet Sotoragg. A being motivated solely by money, with morals so low that he has proven to be more than willing to kill innocents to achieve his mission.

The next in line was a crab-like alien with goldish brown-colored armor, a sideways mouth, four scythe-like legs and a large, powerful pincer for a left hand. Within the pincer was a power blaster combined with several other tools such as a chemical sprayer.

His name was Kraab, a war veteran turned cybernetically-enhanced bounty hunter once he lost 95% of his biological body during the Piscciss-Pyros battles, hailing from the Piscciss Premann species himself.

The third was a 7 foot tall long slender bipedal humanoid, dreadlock-like appendage on its reptilian skin and a face with feature arthropod-like mandibles and no visible nose. It wore a uniform that featured a metal mask with quills on its head and silver blades on its wrists and medium armor.

One might recognize this mercenary as a female Yautja or Hish-Qu-Ten, this in particular being a seasoned hunter who boasted an impressive array of trophies, having herself ventured on numerous hunts across various planets while defying her species' code of honor she appeared to follow her own code.

The fourth was a humanoid wearing a suit of armor that consisted of a golden suit of armor with a deep red chestplate and helmet that had a green visor which shielded its face from view, and flat ridged shoulders. Its biggest feature being the energy cannon on the left arm of the power armor that covered its left hand entirely. For what most knew, this mercenary could very well be an independent android.

This mercenary's name was Aran, a mysterious yet professional bounty hunter with some wild tales being heard surrounding claiming its origin as a stranded soldier from a different galaxy, other rumor claimed that it was merely a way to raise the price for its service, however the most heavily guarded secret being its true identity, given how both its gender and specie was obscured by the Power Suit's nonspecific appearance.

The fifth and final bounty hunter wore a shiny gray suit alongside a black helmet with a small, teal triangle on it, shoulder pads and boots, with glowing teal coloured lines in his helmet and shoulder pads. Armed with a holstered sidearm, some grenades, an extra array of gadgets and his personal hoverboard from hard-light.

Originally named Tetrax but frequently going by the codename Hoverboard, he was an effective mercenary that was believed to be the last of his kind and who was hand-picked out specifically by Vilgax thanks to one infamous job he had accomplished for the conquering warlord.

"Begin the audition!" Vilgax finally commanded over the ship's intercom and they started.

Six-Six flew out first with his jetpack as a bunch of Vilgax's drones came out from the portholes and surrounded him. Just then a socket in his armor opened, he pulled out a blaster and fired it on the droids, destroying a few of them with little effort.

The other drones fired back at him, prompting the purple mercenary to duck out of the way and activate his rocket launcher from his wrist, firing most of his shots at one of the larger droids. Six-Six then pulled out a grenade from another socket in his armor and tossed it at some of the remaining droids of that group, destroying them as it detonated.

Meanwhile, Kraab jumped down from his platform and attacked the remaining droids, grabbing one of them with his pincer and forcefully tossing it into another. He then spotted another one that attempted to rush at him before casually crushing it with his pincer and slicing another with his right hand.

Further away, the Predator glared at her prey before activating her arm blades and swiftly slicing through every single droid she came across, ducking under their blasts before firing a missile from her gauntlet towards them as she snarled at her colleagues that hadn't engaged in combat yet.

Aran glared back before firing its power beam that sent out multiple blasts at the droids, destroying every single one they hit before using its grapple beam on one that was flying overhead. Aran used it to backflip overhead onto it and fired a missile into another overhead.

Then, after the first waves of robots had been dealt with, from up above the four bounty hunters came another droid, this one being giant like the one that Vilgax had sent after the night the Omnitrix crash landed on Earth.

Taking this development as his cue, Tetrax pulled out his own hoverboard and flew towards the towering droid as it fired a powerful blast at him that hit the bullseye with great destructive power. But once the smoke cleared away, it was revealed that the mercenary was completely unharmed, supposedly thanks to his armor.

Tetrax then jumped and punched his way right through the towering droid, destroying it as his hoverboard followed him until he folded it up and put it away, with Vilgax's projection reappearing on the large screen.

"Impressive." Vilgax said, doing his best to hide his current vulnerable state, while still failing to suppress his gasping in between each sentence. "You are all hired. Your objective is to retrieve the Omnitrix…The one who succeeds collects the reward… Do not disappoint me!"

The five bounty hunters nodded in confirmation and then got into escape pods before being jettisoned into the Earth's atmosphere, where they were expected to track and destroy their prey.

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—MC'S POV—

Somewhere in the desert of New Mexico, we found ourselves making a stop because Grandpa Max had decided to set up a training area for me. I aided him with bringing old cans and pipes, but after that he insisted he got the rest, leaving me to stand outside whistling patiently and tapping my foot.

Alright, I was a bit annoyed that after revealing bits of my secret, gramps here had the audacity to not even mention his own background as a Plumber and it really meant. Worst of all, here he was building a weirdly intrinsic system of traps and expected that I wouldn't find it strange for a man who allegedly spent his entire life basically installing and repairing pipes and fixtures that carried water, gas or other fluids in homes and businesses.

Seeing how neither of the girls really seemed to find it all that weird I imagine that it must mean I've been severely underestimating the everyday journeyman of this reality.

Just as Max finally finished setting everything up, he asked me. "Are you ready?"

Smirking back, I nodded as my watch beeped green and soon enough a green flash of light momentarily obscured my silhouette, quickly fading away and leaving me in my new form.

"I'm always ready." I said now in a deep and reverberating voice, proudly displaying one of my most versatile transformations, my Petrosapien (Diamondhead) form.

"Good. But remember to think out there." Max warned me. "Don't try to muscle it. Might isn't always right."

"I get it Grandpa, might is not power itself, but how you wield it." I casually replied before turning my arms to their state where they were capable of shooting out sharp crystals at rapid speeds.

Thinking about my words for a moment, Max eventually pulled a lever and just then a bunch of cans went sailing from a catapult, almost as if it already was second nature to me I shot a flurry of diamonds at approaching targets, hitting the bullseye by having each shard embed themselves into the cans.

"Good." Max complimented before pulling another one and in turn another catapult sent the next set of cans from the other side, I immediately spread my arms and fired another flurry of diamonds at them, gaining the same result as before.

"Nicely done, Ben." Max then smiled and pulled one lever from above him and another next to his side as two targets were soon after launched towards my location, prompting me to once again fire my diamond shards into it from opposite sides.

I then shed off some of my bulky stone body and amped my agility by firing several diamonds, instantly shredding to pieces a bunch of targets tied to a cactus and on a few boards on the top of the hill.

Taking the time to quickly regenerate my slender arms back to normal, I blew off my index fingers as if I was a gunslinger cowboy.

Gwen observed me training from far away as she squirted sunscreen into her hand and started rubbing it in. "Show off."

I heard her despite the distance, who would've expected that a silicon based guy would have such a great hearing. Makes sense if you put into perspective that sonic vibration attacks were something I had to be mindful of in the first place, but I guess it just reinforces my opinion about it being one of my most versatile transformations.

"Focus, Ben. We are almost done!" Max warned me again, mistaking my confidence for irrational arrogance. "Think!"

"Got it." I said as a few more cans came flying towards me and I responded by firing some diamonds at the center of each one of them.

However, just then, I sensed a tire coming flying towards me, but instead of it hitting me by surprise, I easily dodged out of its pendulum trajectory and slashed the tire in half with my quickly produced one handed sword before double tapping each section with a quick round of close quarter shot that carried a similar push as a shotgun from my other hand.

"That will do, Champ. You've proven yourself more than capable of facing combat." Max announced with a proud smile, before assuming a somber mood for a moment. "I've already thanked you for saving us back with your Aunt, but even if you're the responsible type, I need you to learn that everyone commits mistakes, even I. And with age I fear that will only get worse."

"I understand Grandpa!" I assured him, turning back to my human form just so I could place my hand over his shoulder. "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you or the girls."

Max seemed to be appreciative of the gesture, lighting up back to his usual self as he nodded to me, before leading us back to the Rust Bucket.

"Having said that…" I decided to change subjects as I sat by his side in the passenger seat. "I wasn't expecting you to be so calm and prepared about all this. You even admitted already knowing about Lucy."

"I've seen my fair share of surprises during my life as a plumber." Max chuckled, still trying to cover his secrets without openly lying as he drove us away from the training ground. "I'm not angry you kept that secret in the first place. As a matter of fact, I'm impressed how well you've done it."

"You must watch him in action, Grandpa. He is the toughest guy in town." Lucy claimed excitedly while hugging my arm before continuing to shower me with more compliments. "He has kicked so many monster butt his feet must hurt!"

"Yeah, but one of these days, he's gonna get his own butt kicked. And I hope I'm there to see it." Gwen barged in with a provoking smile.

"Ah, you wound me with your cruel words." I replied, dramatically faking being hurt by her words. "And here I thought you didn't hate me."

"I don't hate you! It's only when you get this cocky that I just can't help myself." Gwen admitted before covering her mouth, confusion clear on her face for why she was saying what she had been thinking, receiving a smug smile from Lucy that made her totally miss the brief greenish flash on my eyes.

"Well, you better keep dreaming. HaHaHa!" Lucy said before giving her usual laughter with the occasional snorting. "Because that day's not coming anytime soon."

Gwen stared at me as if waiting for my response, to which merely shrugged with an embarrassed chuckle. "Heh. What can I say, I'm glad to have my biggest fan to cheer for me."

Soon after that, without prior warning, the Rust Bucket's engine sputtered loudly and the RV screeched to a halt.

"That doesn't sound good." Max pointed out after making sure no one was hurt.

'Sorry grandpa.' I thought while looking through the RV's window. 'But I need to face the bounty hunters before moving on."

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Back at the training site, Tetrax found himself looking over the remains of where Ben was tested by Max with Aran by his side as they examined it together. He looked at a radar tracker he brought with him and spotted the energy signature of the Omnitrix.

"This is where the artifact was last activated." Tetrax said before walking off to examine closer, his own hoverboard in hand as the other three bounty hunters appeared on the cliff directly behind him.

Six-six said something in his native alien tongue before activating his jetpack and flying off.

"You can say that again." Kraab muttered in contempt. "A rock pile like this is better off space dust."

Aran used the tracking device in her visor and looked down to see one of the cans that still had one of Ben's shards stuck in it. But as the mysterious mercenary reached down to investigate it, the female Predator grabbed it with an extendable claw from her armor, Aran responded by aiming its arm cannon at her, wordless conveying its own threat.

Just then Tetrax barged in and grabbed the can, yanking it out of her metal claws, with the hunter alien responding by retracting his arm blades and automatically activating her shoulder cannon which began humming threateningly.

"Don't even think about it, Yautja. I've dealt with your kind back home too." Tetrax warned coldly. "You might be more of a hassle than it's worth it, but I promise you will regret messing with me."

Having resumed his own reconnaissance flight, Six-Six landed just in time to interrupt their scuffle before announcing something in his tongue that sounded like a threat while it pointed its weapons at both mercenaries.

"Whoa! Big talk from a gearhead." Kraab teased, clearly being the only one capable of understanding both Six-Six and the Yautja.

"Get in our way again and I'll teach you how to say 'dismantle'." Tetrax proclaimed as both Six-Six and the Predator retracted their weapons, with each one of them sharing some unintelligible comeback.

Six-Six flew off into the distance while the female Predator glared for a moment through her helmet, making a few clicks before vanishing using its cloaking technology.

Only after he judged the situation to be under control did Tetrax resort to removing his hand from his blaster and walking off.

Kraab appeared to have been disappointed by that outcome before jumping while spinning his legs around like a drill and tunneling beneath the surface to search for his target.

As Aran walked away, tripping on a rope that caused the targets from Ben's training to pop up. In response, the mysterious mercenary casually fired its power beam that destroyed the entire training site before Tetrax put a hand on its shoulder.

"Watch it." Tetrax said before making sure they were alone. "I know you are tough and being here must be weird for you, but we can't let those two know what our true mission on this planet is."

"You're right." Aran eventually conceded, its true voice being somewhat filtered and concealed by its metallic helmet, before going back to brooding in silence.

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—MC'S POV—

The Tennysons showed up at an abandoned town to look for repairs for the Rust Bucket as Lucy sighed at the lack of things to do. It was completely deserted and the remains of the buildings and farms looked in really bad shape.

"Looks like nobody's home." Lucy pointed out, eager to go back to the RV and hit the road. But Max was busy under the hood of the Rust Bucket still trying to fix it.

"Not for a while." I told her, noticing her rising boredom and wanting to distract her for a while. "If my studies don't deceive me, this is Slaterville. Incorporated in 1857 after the discovery of silver. But as it was expected it went bust in the late 50's once the mine ran out."

"Urgh. Why does everything that comes out of your mouth sound like a book report?" Gwen groaned as tumbleweed passed us by, but received no response.

"Alright. I guess we'll have to check this place out." Lucy said while dragging me along and leaning against my shoulder.

"Check what out? It's a virtual ghost town!" Gwen almost shouted at us. "We better stay with grandpa. Hey! Don't ignore me!"

After walking for a couple of minutes, the two of us eventually noticed that Gwen had been following us, and we received a reply from her. "Just making sure you two don't find a way to blow everything up."

After accepting her to come along, the three of us began exploring Slatterville's mine and tried our best to admire the old craftsmanship found in it.

"Man, talk about old school." I said, slightly bummed that I couldn't find anything that had the slightest utility to me. "Look at all this junk."

"Yeah. Weird, isn't it?" Lucy agreed, not entirely sure what old school meant.

As silence dwelled upon us for long enough, Gwen finally asked while we continued looking around the abandoned town. "So, how many transformations do you have stored?"

"At the moment? I've counted ten." I admitted, not really worried that this information could be misused by her.

"Wow! Really? That's…crazy. What do you think they are? Monsters? Mutants?" Gwen asked again, genuinely interested about it.

Stopping what I was doing and turning towards Gwen, I began explaining it to her. "My running theory is that they are all aliens."

"What makes you think so?" Lucy joined the conversation.

"Well, we did recently fight against a massive blob of shape shifting beings that had a stereotypical spaceship. Didn't we?" I remarked, receiving agreeing nods from both girls. "Besides, this watch literally fell from the sky."

"Plus, your transformations look an awful lot like that video game we've been playing." Lucy pointed out, not surprising me in the least. "Though I haven't seen anything about a watch that turns one species into another."

"I haven't played it enough to notice." Gwen replied with a pout before asking with genuine curiosity. "So, I've already seen the blind mutt and your turbo lizard. What else do you have there?"

Smirking as if I had been waiting for her to ask, after pulling up my sleeve I mentally activated the watch on my wrist, to which Lucy got a happy look on her face. After displaying a flash of green light, which prompted both girls to cover their eyes, I reapered looking very different from before.

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Meanwhile, all the bounty hunters from before suddenly detected the surge of energy on the radar on their equipment and then started advancing towards Slaterville.

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—MC'S POV—

"Ben, where have you gone?!" Gwen and Lucy called out as they were left staring at an empty space.

That was when a dark presence came out and phased through them as they saw a dark shadowy silhouette that started reforming into its default shape as I eye-smiled at them.

"What's the matter, girls?" I asked in a faint whispering voice that creepily appeared to be followed by an echoing gasp. "You two look like you've seen a ghost! Hehehe!"

"A-as if…you don't scare me." Gwen said, foolish no one with her false bravado. "E-even if you are some sort of ghostfreak!"

"I don't think I can mimic this form." Lucy pointed with a sigh as we all just then felt a tremor in the ground and she gasped. "You don't suppose there's some mine workers still working here?"

Then, we noticed a faint shape tunneling towards us as I grabbed the girls and flew them away before the mercenary known as Kraab came from out of the ground, revealing his head to us as the girls looked very surprised by his appearance.

"Okay, I'm now scared." Gwen said, finally unable to stop shaking.

"Don't worry. I'll handle this guy." I told them with my ghostly voice as I hovered over and glanced around, my eye traveling all across the tears in my skin before finally focusing on the crab cyborg. "Man, you should be more careful when bursting out of the ground. You might hurt yourself."

"Hand over the Omnitrix and I promise that you won't suffer... much." Kraab ordered, completely ignoring my previous words, as he clutched his pincer open and shut.

"Dream on, shell-boy." I mocked him. "I have kind of... bonded with the watch."

"So I've heard. But not for long." Kraab remarked threateningly.

"You have no idea who you're messing with." I warned him.

"Huh. Funny." Kraab replied. "I was just about to tell you the same thing."

Suddenly, a freaking Predator burst through the doors right behind me and snarled at the two of us, deploying its hunting net which I easily permeated through and allowed it to momentarily restrain the previous bounty hunter.

"I wasn't expecting you." I quickly admitted, making my question more to myself. "Are you really a female?…Okay."

That was when I turned invisible, leaving behind nothing but a cyborg struggling to break free from its restraints since the girls had already escaped on my orders.

While still invisible, I slashed my claws at the female Predator, which she instinctively swatted aside with her blades before having her shoulder cannon firing at me, which I easily allowed to permeate past me before slamming into the Predator's body and sent her sprawling on the floor before the hunter quickly stabilized herself with her blades and glared back.

Chuckling menacingly and fading through the ground before immediately bursting from underneath Kraab, who had finally ripped the Predator's net, and banged him around the crates like a pinball, causing some damage from my ghostly claws as I then faded past him and let him take the full impact of hitting the ground at high speed.

The Predator quickly glanced around as her thermal visors on her helmet shifted through any sort of vision that could help it locate my ectoplasm, searching for my signature in order to detect me. But her ghostly opponent suddenly popped up from behind and surprise attacked her.

"You two are as arrogant as you are unprepared to face me." I announced ominously from nowhere before my ectoplasm gathered back to form my body. "How come mere bounty hunters decide that facing the holder of a legendary artifact would be a good idea?"

"The bigger the job, the bigger the paycheck!" Kraab explained while recovering from my previous attack, followed by the female Predator that said something in her native language.

At that moment, contrary to my previous command, Lucy snuck from behind the Predator as she attempted to harden herself into resembling a Petrosapien and readied her arms to fire crystallized sludge.

As she fired them, her target quickly reached around and grabbed one of them with her reptilian hands and crushed them mercilessly while the other shots barely managed to scratch her.

Lucy then changed her plan of attack and tried to charge into her opponent. Unfortunately the female yautja was a step ahead by grabbing a crate and throwing it at her, sending her flying back into the wall and crumbling into a mud puddle, to which her adversary exploited it by shooting her with the shoulder plasma cannon. Lucy then gave out an annoyed 'hmph', before exploding into a mess and struggling even more to reform herself back to normal.

Finding it a necessity, the pair of bounty hunters decided to band together and proceeded to flank me

"You are the superhero! Kick their butt again!" Gwen suddenly shouted and moved to help Lucy, leaving me to engage the pair of hunters.

Dodging out of the way of the goo that Kraab shot at me, I immediately replied. "Fair warning, you two better keep your toys to yourself! Or I'll keep them for myself."

"You are getting really annoying!" Kraab shouted as he fired a beam and the female Predator launched a missile that almost managed to score a direct hit before I became intangible and invisible again.

"Now who's stealing the other's lines." I whispered and my creepy voice echoed everywhere, subtly guiding the duo to the spot I wanted them to be.

The Predator gave out a few clicks in her native language, to which the Kraab guy replied. "I couldn't have said it better myself, my friend. Despite finding your struggle annoying, I must acknowledge you as a worthy hunt."

"Ah, thanks. I'm just playing hard to get." I mocked them while reappearing close to a lever on the wall. I immediately pulled the lever that controlled a lift under the duo of aliens, prompting it to rise up towards the ceiling of the building and crushing the pair of bounty hunters right on top of it.

'Glad that this thing is working after all these years of being abandoned.' I thought to myself, stabbing the lever box with my claws and destroying it with a quick slash. 'But boy does it seem a bit too excessive. What was it supposed to lift anyways?' After assessing that the danger was momentarily halted, my Omnitrix badge beeped red and I immediately transformed back to my human form in a flash of red light.

"You okay, Lucy?" I questioned, kneeling down as she rubbed her head, finally done with reassembling herself after the plasma pulse did a number on her.

"Oh, man. That was weird." She said while being held by Gwen, as we all looked at the crushed aliens and saw the crab's legs twitching.

"Come on. Let's get out of here before Crab Cake and clicker locks wake up." Gwen said as I turned into my Kinneceleran (XLR8) form before picking both girls up and bursting out of the mine.

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Unbeknownst to the trio, Tetrax and Aran were watching them leave, with their visor giving out a shine in the sunlight as they turned away.

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—MC'S POV—

Me and the girls ran back to our grandfather at the Rust Bucket.

"What happened?" Max asked us, once he noticed we were all back in a hurry.

"You know, the usual." Gwen stated while I turned back to my human form. "Some giant crustacean and a reptilian alien with dreadlocks burst out of the ground and attacked us."

"It said it wanted the… Omnitrix." Said Lucy as she turned to my wrist, with my sleeve raised high enough for it to be visible.

"Oh, so we're calling it that now?" I faked ignorance before quickly changing subjects. "Now that the girls are safe, let me go face them again and I'll send them right to Portland."

"No time." Max said while placing his hand over my shoulder. "Repairs are done. We're out of here."

"But Grandpa, if they reach us and destroy the Rust Bucket, we might end up stuck in this desert after I deal with them anyway." I tried to reason, almost wishing I had kept the Omnitrix a secret all the way through. "Better face them here where there won't be danger of having too much collateral damage."

"You give too little credit to her." Max said while patting the RV as if it was a pet, ignoring my previous point. "She had endured some tough situations back in the past."

"But Ben is right, grandpa. They didn't seem to be from here, so transportation shouldn't be an issue to them too. Besides, we have no idea if they are the only ones hunting us." Lucy said before we were convinced to get in and started driving away despite our reasoning.

After some minutes on the road, Gwen looked out of the window and said. "No sign of crab guy and clicker, yet."

At that moment, we all felt a thud on the roof and were surprised by a chainsaw-like blade sawing its way through the roof of the Rust Bucket.

"You had to jinx it, didn't you?" I remarked before turning to Grandpa Max. "I think we just picked up a hitchhiker!" I informed him before we all heard Six-Six snarling at us and pulled away the roof.

"Who's that?!" Gwen asked, shouting.

"I don't know! But he must be with the others!" I shouted back as Max slammed the brake and Six-Six was sent flying off of the RV and onto the ground.

Six-Six stood on the ground dazed before Max advanced and ran him over with the Rust Bucket. However, soon after the RV stopped in the middle of the road, thanks to Six-Six slashing the tires.

We all got out and saw that they had no way to get away from Six-Six as Max spied a mine shaft with a cart leading into it. "In there!"

Quickly turning into my Vulpimancer (Wildmutt) form, picking up the three and placing them somewhere on my back that was safe from my quills, and immediately dashed away from the RV as Six was about to follow.

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Just then, catching the purple mercenary by surprise, Kraab then came burrowing up to him and popped out of the ground with a flourish.

"Remember me?" Kraab then tackled him to the ground.

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—MC'S POV—

Taking the girls and grandpa Max with me as I ran into the mine to get away from the bounty hunters, I eventually decided to hide behind a wall.

Gwen then sneaked a peek behind the wall and saw they weren't being followed, sighing before she said. "The coast is clear."

Right then, I shifted around and threw a nearby rock at some empty space, before the boulder met the ground it impacted against the female Predator from before, knocking her out of her invisibility and surprising everyone but me.

"Don't you get tired of jinxing us all the time?!" Lucy shouted at Gwen.

"Yes. Yes I do." Gwen replied as I rushed to face the female Predator before she could recover from my previous attack, my roars were met with a few clicks from her mandibles, initiating a staring contest.

'I have no idea what you said, but I suppose you don't like the fact that my form was vaguely similar to the xenomorphs which her kind had a never ending war with.' I thought, cursing the fact that I might only get a universal translator after the Omnitrix gets recalibrated.

Rolling around while dragging her, I halted my movement just in time to toss her against a far away wall, prompting a bit of the ceiling to cave in over her.

"Run!" Max shouted and we all began to run away from the female yautja down the tunnels of the mine as I turned back to my human form so that I wouldn't be restrained by the space.

After many sharp turns, Kraab joined the pursuit by crashing into the wall beside us before continuing to chase us. The gang and I kept running until we finally reached a dead end with a chasm directly beneath us.

"Great. We're trapped." Lucy said.

"Now what?" Gwen asked.

Max then looked around and saw a minecart on one of the railings with a lever next to it. "We take a ride."

We then rushed to the mine cart as Kraab and the female Predator banded together. Getting into the cart as grandpa Max pulled the nearby lever causing it to start to move before he attempted a risky jump for it and barely managed to grab the cart before me and the girls pulled him in.

"C'mon grandpa!" I said, getting tired of playing catch. "You warned me about not rushing into a fight without thinking, but we've been running with no plan whatsoever." As the cart went to the other side, we watched Kraab and the female Predator leaving as Lucy stuck out her tongue at them. "My point exactly."

"What a slippery prey!" Kraab said as the female Predator prepared to cut the wire to send us all to our doom before she was hit by a laser blast and Six-Six resumed his assault on us by sending several blasts at the mine cart, forcing my group to brace for the impact.

"He's coming in hot!" Gwen said as I had my Omnitrix ready.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Max sighed.

"I will distract them and lead them off. " I said as I got up, activating the Omnitrix without touching it.

"But Ben, that's just what they want!" Max warned me while I transformed into a Petrosapien.

"Adapt, overcome and survive." I remarked before jumping out of the cart and tackling Six-Six as I manifested a crystal sword in my hand during our fall down the chasm.

"Ben!" Max shouted before we came back as I rode on Six-Six's jetpack.

We struggled a little, with me slicing off a couple of pieces from his equipment, before crashing into a wall and crashing onto one of the stands on the mine as the cart went into the tunnels without me on it.

"Ben, come on!" Gwen shouted as I suddenly stood up.

"I'll catch up with you guys later while I take care of them. Just be careful, there might be more from where these guys came from, so don't get captured." I said as I manifested a diamond shield and blocked Kraab's pincer before bashing him back into a wall. "You really should've seen that coming." I said before Kraab got up, proceeding to fight the three bounty hunters with all my might before they were eventually defeated and encased on crystal prisons.

The watch suddenly beeped red and I shifted back into my human form, immediately picking up a special syringe from my hoodie's pocket and retrieved some blood from the female Yautja…for further research.

Then, as a grenade appeared in the area, the watch immediately beeped and I became a Lepidopterran and took flight, evading the burst of smoke that now covered the three neutralized mercenaries.

Looking around with my special eyes, I saw Tetrax holding a grenade launcher in his hands, with another unexpected guest alongside him.

"First the predator… now you?" I assessed before telling myself with a chuckle. "Ha! The fun never ends."

Tetrax flew towards me in his hoverboard with the other mercenary flying independently thanks to its thrusters.

The two followed me out of the mine and back into town, until I descended safely to the ground. As the remaining two bounty hunters approached, I glared at them with my four insectoid eyes.

"That whole deal with the smoke grenade was rather uncouth." I told them, really interested in jumping the whole 'prove myself worthy' arc. "If you wanted my attention, you just have to ask."

"You are still capable of acting casual despite being hunted by professionals." Tetrax pointed out. "6 billion sentient beings on this planet and it seems the Omnitrix ends up in the hands of a natural warrior."

"Flattering? I'll let you know that it will get you nowhere." I said, giving my back to the duo.

"Yet you still haven't attacked us." The other mercenary said.

"Neither did you." I pointed as a matter-of-factly before turning to them and buzzing my powerful wings. "I hate to rain on your parade, but like I've told your buddies, the Omnitrix doesn't come off."

"Of course it doesn't. Its power utilizes alien DNA, which binds to the host's own genetic structure. It can't simply be removed like taking off a hat." Tetrax said, crossing his arms.

"I sure hope so." I said, more to myself. "It would kind of ruin its charm."

"Although you show prowess in combat. Your choice of warriors seems based solely on brute strength without regard for any strategy. Do you ever pause to consider your actions at all?" Tetrax asked, more interested in understanding my thought process instead of scolding me.

"I didn't receive instructions, okay? Brute strength is just the first step towards mastering its uses." I told them, not actually believing that I had all day long to keep speaking with them.

"I see. Given your recent success in the mine shaft with the bounty hunters, that's not hard to believe." Tetrax pointed out, finally drawing the attention of his silent companion.

"Yet, you still failed to dominate the battlefield, having received some damage yourself. With the Omnitrix, victory should have been immediate." The other mercenary said. "The Omnitrix is not just some advanced weapon. It is the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. The keys to an epic battle between good and evil."

"Oh, and which category do you two fall into?" I finally asked, already knowing the answer.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe we still haven't engaged in combat." Tetrax pointed out while placing a hand over his companion, as if to calm her down.

"So, care to explain what the good guys are doing hanging around with the bad guys?" I asked with my arms crossed.

"Our mission is to retrieve the Omnitrix at all costs. Since it is attached to you, we were planning on bringing you along for its removal." Tetrax explained.

"Oh, so it comes to this." I challenged them. "I'm afraid you will be disappointed."

"It's not your choice, little one." The other mercenary said.

"Of course it is." I announced before being covered in bright green light and swiftly shifted from my Lepidopterran (Stinkfly) form into my Tetramand (Four arms) one, clenched my fists up and immediately tackled Tetrax without giving them time to react, knocking his hoverboard away as I punched him in the face before grabbing him by the neck and burying him on the ground.

The other mercenary, who I sort of recognized as resembling the Samus character from those video games, tried to fight back but was met with identical results since I still had plenty of free arms to use.

"It's astonishing how fast you seem to be mastering the Omnitrix. You seem capable of freely switching between each warrior of your choice." Tetrax told me, apparently unfazed by the amount of force I used against him.

"Again with the flattering?" I pointed while standing up offering a hand for both mercenaries. "One of my transformations is so hyper smart that it helped me make sense out of this watch. Despite having no frame of reference on how alien technology works, I managed to at least recognize its encryption patterns."

Both Tetrx and the one I came to name as Samus accepted my hands and got up from the ground, with the former finally opening his helmet, revealing the face of a Petrosapien (Diamondhead).

"Never would have seen that coming. I thought you were wearing a really thick suit of armor." I glared at the hunter's face while shifting to my Petrosapien (Diamondhead) form. "So, you are some sort of donor to my transformation? Or just some random bounty hunter that likes doing some good from time to time?"

"Neither. I am a noble Petrosapien warrior, Tetrax Shard." The hunter said.

"I guess we're two of a kind." Samus said as she removed her own helmet, revealing herself to be a young woman with blonde hair tied in a ponytail as she glared at me.

"Of course you are human." I stated, not slightly surprised, but still wishing to know more about it while subtly releasing my magical aura of honesty. "Dig the suit though. Don't tell me you work for the government."

"Heh, not exactly. This Earth is so much more different than mine. But still similar in a weird way." Samus explained, apparently nostalgic for some reason. "My name is Samus Aran. You could say that Tetrax and I are situational partners in this business for the moment. We found the hunt and we split the prize together. Now we have a mission that requires that the Omnitrix is safe."

"So you are not from this dimension?" I quickly connected the dots. "Cool." From Samus' shocked expression, I got that it wasn't something she wished to have shared with me. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

"T-thank you." Samus told me, still a bit unsure about what just happened.

'Damn she's hot! Just a pity I've never really played her games all that much.' I told myself, making a mental note to further explore those memories of my past life with my Galvan (Grey Matter) transformation once I get the chance.

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Meanwhile I exchanged a few words with Samus, Tetrax looked for his hoverboard until he heard Kraab's mechanical footsteps approaching as he showed up with his hoverboard in hand.

"Looking for this? You're not getting off this planet with the Omnitrix. And just to be sure..." he gestured to his right where Six-Six and the Predator came in and revealed they had captured Gwen and Max as they struggled in his grip.

"Hands off!" Max shouted.

"Let me go!" Gwen shouted as Ben turned to face them. "Ben, they froze Lucy!"

"See, the three of us have decided to work together and split the reward and you two... in half." Kraab said as he clamped his pincer twice to make a point.

"Give me my hoverboard!" Tetrax shouted.

"You want it? Come get it!" Kraab then tossed the hoverboard to his right at a rock resting nearby them. "But you'll have to get past us to do it."

The Predator and Six-Six pulled out their weapons, the former activating its shoulder cannon and the latter exposing its extra arms, and started firing energy bolts at the three of us.

When Tetrax turned around, the bolts deflected off of his indestructible crystal body before he and his partner ran after me into an abandoned convenience store. Ironically, 'convenient' was the best word that could be used to describe its existence.

The crab cyborg continued firing on us when the female Predator gave a few clicks to him in her native language.

"Shut your gasket, snake head. I know what I'm doing." Kraab rebutted.

"I'm ready for round three." I growled before Tetrax stopped me.

"Don't be foolish. Keeping the Omnitrix secured is the only priority here." Tetrax said to me.

"Not to me." I said while releasing his grasp over me. "That's my family out there. Help me rescue them or don't get on my way."

"You cannot save them while they are being used as hostages, you would eventually be overpowered and captured. Luckily for you, I have a spare hoverboard that we can use to leave the planet while we still can." Tetrax told me, apparently still trying to analyze me.

"We have to get it now." Samus said after dodging a blast that pierced our cover.

"Look out!" I warned as Tetrax started to pull something out of his pack and was swatted aside by the invisible Predator.

"Hey, get your claws off my partner, bub!" Samus shouted, aiming her blaster at the female Yautja as Six-six tackled her to a different corner and the two engaged in a shooting match.

That was when I, out of the corner of my eye, saw Max and Gwen being held as hostages in the distance. Turning to see Tetrax and the female Predator brawling in a cloud of dust before I transformed into a Kineceleran.

Running out of the convenience store in a considerable burst of speed, I was sure to kick up plenty of the desert's sand to give myself some cover until I got in front of the crab dude, who had taken Gwen and Max, while the purple alien was still busy fighting Samus, and glared at him.

"What are you gonna do? You are finally outmatched." Kraab said as I paid no mind to his warning, exploring the opening in Kraab's defense and using the dust cloud to rush at Kraab before he had the chance to react properly.

From my family's perspective, they only saw a blue wind rushing past Kraab and they both vanished from the alien mercenary's grasp.

Several meters away, I, still in my Kineceleran form, came to a halt and released my cousin and Grandfather somewhere safe, opening my visor. "Nice one, huh?"

"Better." Gwen said as they then saw Tetrax and the female Predator crashing out of the store as they struggled on the ground before Samus landed some shots at Six-Six who stumbled back from the harmful blows.

Samus glared as she rolled up into her ball form and laid some bombs all around the area as Tetrax tossed the female Predator into one of them, detonating the bomb and blowing her sky-high.

"Where's Lucy?!" I asked and after getting my answer, vanished again in a burst of speed.

Right after that, Max and Gwen ducked under a mine cart as Tetrax jumped off his recently recovered hoverboard and landed square on Six-Six causing a massive dust cloud and forming a crater as Kraab stumbled back from the force of the impact.

Then, the two started brawling as Tetrax's enhanced strength allowed his punch to blow Six-Six back a few feet before he activated his gauntlet and fired a rocket from it, which Tetrax then blocked using a diamond shield.

Kraab erupted from the ground behind Tetrax, aiming to surprise attack him, but Samus beat him to the punch. She grabbed his pincer and, with a display of inhuman strength, tossed him into the rising Six-Six.

The female Predator started advancing on her from behind and took her shot, which Samus failed to avoid but paid back by firing a missile over her shoulder, which blew the yautja back into the cluster of bombs again.

Kraab finally noticed that his target had escaped during his battle with the other hunters, so he went after me. However, before he went further, the robotic mercenary noticed a Pyronite (Heatblast) soaring through the sky and charging at him like a meteor. The cyborg mercenary was about to submerge himself when he noticed the approaching inferno vanish into a flash of green.

"What is the meaning of this?" He asked before scanning the sky, thinking his target had turned again into an Ectonurite, only to find no trace of me.

Up in the nearby rafters, I had just hopped up onto one of the beams in my Galvanic (Grey Matter) form, stealthily leaping onto Kraab's neck and finding an opening while the Cyborg mercenary was still trying to track me down.

After hearing some of his circuits being ripped off, Kraab struggled and shouted. "Get off of me, you tiny little Galvan pest!"

"No sign of a nerve cluster in here, but I think this should do." I said as I forced him to scramble out of the door.

Finally pulling the correct cables loose before Kraab started thrashing, no longer in control of his actions as his head spun and he finally shut down, crashing to the floor. I jumped off his shoulder before morphing into my Galvanic Mechamorph (Upgrade) form.

"One down." I said with my voice going through a mechanical filter before slithering towards the still struggling Tetrax and Six-Six like a wave of liquefied metal.

Six-Six then got Tetrax into a headlock before activating his jetpack and flying upwards in order to body slam Tetrax into the ground. Unknowingly to him, I had reached just in time and taken the opportunity to make my way to the workings of the hunter's armor systems.

On the outside, Six-Six spotted a recovering Tetrax and was about to point his rockets before Lucy tackled him.

"Ready for a round two!" Lucy shouted as the alien tossed her off him and activated his freezing gun.

I saw this and took action. "Not on my watch!"

"No!" Max and Gwen shouted as Six-Six was about to encase Lucy on ice again, but fortunately I managed to lock him in place just in time.

"Guess who?" I asked as Six-Six struggled against his own armor. Tetrax then recovered and saw Six-Six assuming a green and black color scheme with a circuitry pattern.

"I told you to stay out of this." Tetrax pointed out.

"What can I say? I told you what my priorities were. Besides, you were just taking too long to kick their butt." I said before disassembling the circuits and had most of the weapons and gadgets falling off Six-Six's armor. "You are welcome by the way."

I then activated a few protocols which prompted the alien's jetpack to activate, making the two of us fly off. On the way, the out of control alien then crashed into the town's water tower.

Inside of his armor, I started tinkering as the circuitry started to burst and the lights in his armor started going out, which signaled that we would come crashing down to the ground. Before we crashed into the ground though, Lucy broke our fall by catching us with her long arms.

"Thanks." I said while ejecting out of Six-Six's armor like a sentient goo.

"You're welcome." Lucy said with a wink as we made our way back to our family, Tetrax and Samus with a smile.

The female Predator thought herself intelligent and charged forward while invisible, as she aimed her metal claws at us Samus visor finally noticed her and shot first this time, sending the yautja crashing against Kraab's neutralized body and knocking her out. Lucy threw Six-six at them, making a pile of our defeated opponents.

"Flawless victory!." She cheered with both arms raised.

Noticing the now loose water tower starting to fall as I recalled the trajectory of where it would fall, I smirked to myself as the tower's shadow was cast on the three bounty hunters.

"I hate this planet." Kraab said right before the tower fell on them, broke and the water started gushing out.

"Only one way to beat the desert heat, huh?" I said, finally turning back to my human form.

"Pretty smart... for a human." Tetrax admitted, before he noticed Samus clearing her throat as she stood next to him with a glare. "Sorry."

Tetrax then activated a device that sent a cube that looked like the Tesseract as it grew in size to encase the three bounty hunters, which then shrunk down, imprisoning them. He then pocketed the cube with the hunters inside it.

"I'll return as soon as I'm able." Tetrax promised, finally accepting me as a worthy wielder for the Omnitrix..

"I won't make the same promise." Samus stated while putting her helmet on. "But it has been an honor, kid."

"What about this?" Ben asked, showing the Omnitrix just to be sure to play the part of the humble hero.

"It's in good hands." Tetrax reassured me as he then went into the store and grabbed his hoverboard before handing it to me. "Strategy in choosing your transformations can only get you so far. Don't forget to hone your skills as a human warrior too." He pointed out. "Take it. This may be of some use if the need arises."

"Still insisting on flattering me, huh!" I raised an eyebrow before accepting the present. "Thanks."

"Consider it a gift." Tetrax said before activating his helmet as Samus walked up next to him and used a device that teleported them away in a flash of red light.

"How come you get all the cool alien stuff?" Gwen asked as I smirked at her.

"Here, take it." I casually tossed it to her.

"Wow! S-seriously?!" Gwen asked in shock as she took out the Hoverboard. "T-thanks Ben!"

"Don't mention it!" I said before walking away with his arms behind his head. "Consider it my way of making it up for letting them capture you."

"Besides…We wouldn't want that big butt of yours to get so far behind us all the time." Lucy laughed as she walked away after me.

"Oh yeah? Wanna bet who's fastest?" Gwen challenged us as she activated her new hoverboard, got on it and smiled at her cousin. "Race you to the Rust Bucket!"

"You're on!" Lucy said as she morphed into a variation of my Vulpimancer (Wildmutt) transformation and the two zoomed off back to the RV.

Meanwhile, both me and Max were left alone. "Grandpa?"

"Yes, Ben?" The Plumber in retirement replied.

"Next time, I'll need you to trust me more." I told him in a serious tone, trying my best to not appear threatening. "I know you want to protect us, but while I have this watch, this responsibility also falls on me."

"I-I…but…" Max seemed a bit lost at words for a moment, but eventually he recovered himself and said with a smile. "You are right. Heh. In times like this, you really remind me of myself when I was young. There are a few things I'm not telling you. But it's not because you are not ready… it's just that after years of keeping a secret, I'm the one not ready to share it with others that can bear the responsibility."

I then proceeded to offer my hand to him, doing my best to be finally treated as a grown up. "I understand, Grandpa. Tell me about it when you are ready."

Max then nodded back and the two of us began making our way back to the Rust Bucket.

With me focused on my plans to come back later and scavenge all the tech I managed to take from the alien mercenaries during our battle. That and the fact that I finally had a sensor powerful enough to help me hide the Omnitrix energy signature.

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Back in orbit, on the Chimerian Hammer, a robot watched on a monitor as Tetrax and Aran zoomed away in a flash of red light as it turned to its master.

"Betrayed!" Vilgax sighed in anger.

"Sensors indicate the Omnitrix is not with the mercenaries." The robot immediately informed its master. "Although, the signal seems to have become harder to track."

"It appears the creature who possesses the Omnitrix is as clever as they are fierce." Vilgax muttered. "But I shall not be denied!"

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(29/04/2021)

(30/04/2021)

(02/11/2023)

*Hey there! Thanks for reading my work! I hope this chapter is of your liking. I tried to preserve some of the original plot and character interactions while hinting about some possible plot threads that I plan to work upon. Not to mention adding my personal flavor to the mix.

Sorry if you expected more of it. 😅

Any ideas for powers, adventure arcs and girls are more than welcomed. I might not use anything, but you will have my gratitude for trying.

If this chapter is a mess of grammatical errors, please point them out and I'll promptly try to fix it. Feel free to leave your feedback while you are at it. ☺️

Thanks as always for your time and attention, hope you have a fantastic day and please stay safe.

Bye!

** Really sorry for the constant and long delays, my college classes have resumed so I'm having a hard time organizing my time to write my fics. 😓

*** Hope you like the cameos of this chapter. If they are well accepted, I might consider having more of them.