Chapter 39: The Awkward Ride Home
"Again!"
With a disorienting flash of light, Kevin and Ben materialized in a metallic room they now recognized with a grim sense of familiarity.
"Ben, are you having fun?"
A deep, resonant voice echoed from behind a shimmering crimson energy barrier, a voice that sent a jolt through both of them.
"How do you know my name?" Ben demanded, staring at the barrier in shock. The surprise was so potent that even Kevin momentarily forgot the simmering animosity he held for the dweeb beside him.
Silence answered him. Instead, the crimson energy barrier hissed and retracted, slowly revealing the scene within.
"...Big surprise!"
Behind the vanishing shield sat the hulking, octopus-faced form of Vilgax, slumped in a command throne. But something was terribly wrong. A black and green, circuit-like alien was merged with the warlord's body, its single, glowing green eye fixed on them.
"Cousin!" Ben gasped, a wave of shocked relief washing over him as he recognized the alien.
"It's you!" Kevin exclaimed, his eyes wide with disbelief.
The circuit-patterned alien, Upgrade, peeled itself away from Vilgax's form. "I know you have a lot of questions," it said, its voice a synthesized version of Klein's. "But let me be clear: I didn't capture you. I just hitched a ride and took control of this guy."
Once detached, Vilgax's massive body convulsed violently for a moment before slumping over, completely inert. The warlord was little more than a puppet, his systems already fried beyond repair.
"I've already set the escape pods and programmed an interstellar jump," Upgrade explained, gesturing with a fluid limb. "Once we're clear, this whole ship is taking a one-way trip to the most remote, godforsaken corner of the galaxy I could find."
Upgrade flowed out the door. Ben and Kevin, after a brief, hesitant glance at each other, followed. Kevin's instincts screamed that he was following his enemies, yet the promise of a ride back to Earth overrode everything else. He scowled, but kept his mouth shut and his feet moving.
"Cousin, what about the other people who were captured?" Ben asked, his mind flashing back to the friendly alien he'd met in the cells. "We have to save them."
"Don't worry. I've prepped all the pods," Upgrade said with a dismissive wave. "They just need to climb in and punch in their home coordinates."
A faint blue light enveloped the Galvanic Mechamorph, and in its place stood Klein, looking as nonchalant as ever.
...
At the entrance to the escape pod bay, Ben took charge, directing the crowd of freed aliens toward the waiting vessels, helping them handle the controls to return to their respective homeworlds. One by one, the pods launched, streaking into the blackness of space until only a few remained.
Most of the aliens had departed with words of gratitude, but one stayed behind.
"My life is yours, Master."
A tall, crystalline alien with a diamond-hard body dropped to one knee before Ben, his voice rumbling with conviction.
"Whoa, hey, get up! What are you doing?" Ben flinched back, hands raised in a placating gesture. He was completely flustered by the alien's solemn declaration.
"You saved my life," the Petrosapien, Tetrax, stated, his gaze unwavering. "Therefore, you are my Master."
"I don't need your life! It's yours, I'm giving it back to you," Ben insisted, uncomfortable with the idea of anyone serving him. He believed everyone was an equal. "You should hurry home!"
But Tetrax remained kneeling, a silent, unmoving statue of loyalty.
Klein, watching from the side, didn't fully grasp the intricacies of their honor-bound exchange, but he was acutely aware of the timer he'd set for the ship's final jump. If they didn't get a move on, they'd all be flung into some unknown cosmic backwater.
With a sigh of impatience, he strode forward, grabbing Ben's left wrist and pulling his arm toward the kneeling alien. He pressed the face of the Omnitrix close to Tetrax's crystalline shoulder.
The watch's light shifted from its usual vibrant green to a scanning yellow, then blinked back to green a moment later.
"There," Klein said flatly. "Ben has received the reward for saving you. Now you can go."
Seeing the genuinely ecstatic look on Ben's face as he stared at the new alien icon on his Omnitrix, Tetrax seemed to accept the transaction. He rose to his feet, though his reluctance was plain to see. With one last, long look at Ben, the bounty hunter finally turned and boarded his escape pod, the hatch sealing behind him with a mournful hiss.
"Alright, our turn," Klein announced, boarding the last empty pod. Ben and Kevin followed him in, the hatch closing and sealing them inside.
The pod launched, its navigation system locked onto a distant blue-green marble: Earth.
The interior was cramped. Klein and Ben sat on one side, while Kevin took the opposite bench, creating a evident gulf of tension between them. Klein, looking utterly bored, idly fiddled with his own Another Omnitrix. Kevin, meanwhile, seemed to have found a sudden, intense fascination with the pod's floor plating, refusing to meet anyone's gaze.
Ben, with his cousin beside him, wasn't quite as stiff as Kevin, but the heavy silence wasn't doing him any favors either.
...
After a short journey that felt like an eternity—at least for Kevin—the escape pod touched down with a gentle bump.
The hatch hissed open, and Kevin shot out of it like a man escaping a burning building. He scrambled onto the empty grassland, looking worse for wear, but still managed to spin around and point a trembling finger back at the pod.
"Ben Tennyson! This isn't over! I'll be back for you!"
With his threat delivered, he turned and fled, a disheveled figure disappearing over the horizon.
Klein and Ben exchanged a look and shrugged in unison.
"By the way... where are Gwen and Grandpa?" Ben asked, looking around at the vast, empty field. A flicker of worry crossed his face.
"We did get snatched right in front of them," Klein reasoned calmly. "I'd guess they're probably out there somewhere, trying to mount a heroic rescue."
"Right," Ben said, his determination returning. He was already reaching for the Omnitrix, a determined glint in his eye. "Alright, time for Fasttrack to—"
A light tap on his head stopped him short. He looked up to see Klein shaking his phone at him with a pointed look. Ben's expression shifted from heroic resolve to one of dawning comprehension.
...
At that very moment, in a distant sector of the Milky Way, a colossal warship erupted in a silent, brilliant explosion. From the heart of the fire and debris, a single, small spacecraft shot out, accelerating away from the wreckage at incredible speed.
Soon after, the small ship docked at a bustling, ring-shaped space station.
The ship's hatch hissed open, and a figure strode out. It was a Petrosapien, his body composed of sharp, dark crystals and clad in heavy armor, his face hidden behind a helmet nearly identical to the one Tetrax wore.
The alien moved with cold purpose, walking to a circular control panel in the station's main concourse. He carefully placed a transparent, cylindrical container on the console. Inside, a vibrant purple crystal pulsed with a faint, inner light.
His crystalline fingers danced across the controls, and a holographic projection shimmered to life above the panel.
"The X-Element is secured," the alien's synthesized voice reported. "All that remains is to find the Baisinion Alloy... The intel points to one location."
The projection zoomed in on a familiar spiral arm of the galaxy, then to a specific solar system, and finally to a single, unassuming planet.
"The junkyard of the Milky Way," the alien stated, a hint of disdain in his tone. "Earth."
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