"I thought it was just some kid who snatched it from the rust bucket," the alien commented.
"I owe you an apology. If you get me out of this thing, maybe we could find a random together or…" The alien said, wearing a friendly smile on its face as Gwen let him down, releasing him.
Ben looked back at the Omnitrix, which occupied the entire space of his left palm, with furrowed brows as he contemplated what to do next.
"Are you sure?" Gwen asked with concern. But Ben quickly put the Omnitrix on his left hand as it quickly adjusted itself on his hand. Ben had given up the life of a hero ever since he saved the world from Vilgax and wanted to experience life again without fighting aliens or stopping the Forever Knights, and Gwen was all for it but had to be sure if Ben was ready to return to that life again. After all, he was basically doing it for free!
He turned towards Gwen showing her the Omnitrix strapped on his wrist, "I am sure!"
Ben and Gwen followed Fish Face afterward to a shipyard containing numerous cargo. Fish Face looked for a place that would be considered a good stakeout spot and halted the group.
"According to a tip from your grandfather, the Forever Knights are criminals who trade in…" Fish Face tried to explain why they were here but got cut off by Ben.
"…Alien technology, I know. I have run up against them before," Ben answered, completing Fish Face's sentence.
"They are supposed to show up here tonight to receive a shipment of illegal alien tech," Fish face continued.
"Where do they get it from?" Gwen asked, curious to know how alien tech found themselves on Earth in the first place.
"I don't know. Max was going to tell me before he disappeared," Fish face said, turning to face Gwen.
"Wait, someone's coming," Fish face alerted the group as they took cover.
Two cargo trucks pulled up opposite each other but gave enough space for the meeting and transaction as they both came to a stop.
"Who is that?" Ben asked as he turned to fish face.
"I don't know; I can't make out the appearance with the clothing they are wearing," Fish face answered with a shrug.
A small figure with a black cloak equipped with a hoodie hopped out of one of the trucks, and a representative of the Knights with a briefcase in their hand walked toward the space between the trucks.
"Ok, looks like the crystals are here," the hooded figure stated in a pitched coarse voice and signaled to some people behind the truck as they rolled out a cargo carefully to the hooded figure.
"As promised, four dozen factory new laser lances, ether point energy module, antenna focus emitter, it's good for a continuous hour of continuous fire at point six terawatts, allow me to demonstrate," the hooded figure spoke proudly, lying through their teeth about the time range, and waved a metallic handle shaped like an A.
The figure charged the weapon, and a red concentrated laser beam shot out of it for several metres/feet and destroyed the terrain.
"Those lancers are LEVEL FIVE TECHNOLOGY! And this planet is ONLY LEVEL TWO!" Fish face emphasized loudly about the level comparison, almost giving away their location.
"Hey, whisper!" Ben warned in hushed tones, but Fish face wasn't having any of that and got up, gun in hand, and left.
'Is he crazy? Is this his first stakeout? No wonder Grandpa decided to go solo when this guy is his partner,' Ben thought, rubbing his temples.
"HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEADS, air breathers, by authority of the plumbers… you are all busted!" Fish face proclaimed, showing his plumber badge that looked exactly like the head/watch face of the Omnitrix.
'I take it back; he is crazy,' Ben concluded in his mind as Gwen got up to back Fish face up.
Some of the humans present during the deal tore off their faces and revealed their true forms to be DNAliens. Three of them ran to attack Fish Face's group after his bold declaration.
Fish face, at least knowing DNAlien's weaknesses, made a wall of fire like a boundary for protection and to ward off the DNAliens with his laser gun. The Forever Knights took that chance to surround the Ben's group on the opposite of the small wall of fire.
"We are toast," Gwen concluded as she analyzed her environment but looked to Ben to transform into something to help them out.
"Right, it's HERO TIME!" Ben declared and turned the dial on his Omnitrix as the face popped up, and he slammed hard on it.
Nothing happened.
"C'mon Ben," Gwen urged, hoping Ben would stop playing around and transform.
The usual green colour on the face of the Omnitrix turned blue as Ben panicked and tinkered with it carelessly.
The wall of flames began to go out, and the DNAliens could resume their assault on their target, and the Forever Knights drew closer as the trio backed into each other's backs.
"This is a really bad time for a reboot. I got nothing!" Ben said as he kept tapping the Omnitrix.
"Maybe I do," Gwen said with conviction as pink discs made of mana covered her palms and charged forward.
Gwen fired pink discs rapidly at the Forever Knights, pushing them back and knocking down a few. Fish face, as if inspired by her bravery, began to… fire at the ground, just before the feet of the DNAliens, as if trying the non-lethal approach since they might be humans whose bodies are being used.
Gwen then made a shield wall of mana that looked pink as she became overwhelmed with multiple laser weapons firing in her position. The wall soon broke down as DNAliens rushed in to melee their targets. Ben, Fish Face, and Gwen dodged claw attack after claw attack from the DNAliens. Ben soon separated from his group and ran to get more time to fix his Omnitrix. Fish Face wasn't doing so well as the only gun Fish Face had was covered in dark yellow mucus/slime to stop any firing from Fish Face.
Fish Face soon became the victim of a mob attack as the DNAliens focused their mucus/slime attacks on Fish Face relentlessly. After restraining Fish face with their attacks, they soon went after Ben, covering considerable distances with their jumps. Ben dodged slime attacks continuously as he waited for the Omnitrix to respond.
Gwen kept firing discs at a considerable pace since she picked out her targets one at a time but soon stepped on slime from the DNAliens and was stuck. The DNAliens took that chance to assault her with slime attacks as well.
Ben gasped as the blue LED display on his Omnitrix soon turned green, but the light spread to the entirety of the Omnitrix, and after the show of light, the Omnitrix looked a lot smaller than it originally was to that of a regular-sized wristwatch.
"Whoa, it's never done that before," Ben said as he inspected his updated Omnitrix. Ben then dialed through the new aliens in the Omnitrix.
"Under the circumstances, this one looks pretty good," Ben said and slammed down on the dial. His physiology began to morph as his body was covered in bright green light.
"SWAMP FIRE!"
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Authors note:
BAD NEWS! Something burnt in my motherboard on my laptop. This will be the 100th time I am sending the laptop for repairs. I can only publish this chapter because I saved it last week in the drafts.
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