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The battle at Mount Rushmore had finally ended. Dust settled over the cracked stone faces of the presidents, and the last of the Negative 10 were being hauled into temporary Plumber-tech containment units. The glowing green units hummed with energy as the villains inside snarled and cursed.
Subaru Tennyson, an eleven-year-old boy in his white T-shirt, stood on the ground with a triumphant grin. His Omnitrix glowed a cooling red.
"Heck yeah!" he cheered, throwing up a double-peace sign. "That's seventeen wins in a row, Grandpa! At this rate, I'm basically the champion of the universe!"
Grandpa Max chuckled, brushing dust from his red Hawaiian shirt. "Easy there, Subaru. Confidence is good, but overconfidence gets you in trouble."
Gwen folded her arms, leaning into Subaru's space with a smirk. "Seventeen wins? Are you counting the times you accidentally turned into the wrong alien? Because that's a lot of losses in my book."
"Hey! A win is a win, you dweeh!" Subaru barked, crossing his arms to mirror her stance. "Maybe if you did more than just glow blue, then you'd understand what it's like to be a hero."
Gwen leaned in further until their foreheads touched. "I've saved your heroic butt three times today alone. We all can see why I call you Doofus it's the only word that fits that thick skull of yours."
"What did you say, you ugly gorilla?!" Subaru started to yell, but the words died as a shadow suddenly swallowed the mountain.
Then a deafening BOOM tore through the atmosphere. The clouds incinerated. A massive crimson warship descended, draped in a web of crackling orange energy.
Subaru's jaw dropped. "No way... that ship... It can't be."
Max's face went pale. "It's him! But how? He's supposed to be rotting in the Null Vold!
The ship's underbelly hissed open. A single piercing green beam slammed into the earth, and out of the light stepped a conqueror.
"VILGAX?!" Subaru yelped, stepping forward. His hand hovered over the red watch. "How are you here?! You were stuck in the Void with Kevin!"
Vilgax didn't answer immediately. He marched forward as the night sky filled above him. Ten, fifty, a hundred-over five hundred ships descended like the coming apocalypse.
"I have endured the hell of the Void," Vilgax rumbled, his gaze locking onto the Omnitrix with terrifying focus. "And I have returned to find you playing games in the dirt. Subaru Tennyson... I'll give you credit for staying alive this long. If only because it kept my prize safe."
"We can't win this," Gwen whispered, her hands trembling as they glowed with magic. "There are too many of them, Grandpa."
Max slammed a hidden emergency beacon on his belt. "We need to buy time! Wait for my signal!"
But Vilgax heard him. "I am finished waiting." he roared, gesturing to the sky.
The fleet opened fire. Searing beams of energy rained down. Gwen skidded in front of Max and Subaru in a blur. "Vortess Nebulae!"
She wove her hands through the air and screamed as she threw up a bright blue dome of magical energy. "STAY CLOSE!"
The first blast hit the shield. Gwen buckled, a cry of pure agony escaping her lips. The magic shield began to crack Instantly.
Furious and helpless, Subaru slammed his palm onto the Omnitrix. The red light blinked back a mocking, steady rhythm.
"Dammit! Work!" he yelled, hitting it again and again. "Why are you still on cooldown?! Come on, you stupid watch! You piece of junk! WORK!"
High above, the flagship's main cannon hummed with a terrifying, blinding light. Gwen felt the spike in energy. She knew the shield would shatter. With a final desperate scream, she collapsed the entire shield into a single dense disc above them to take the brunt of the main beam.
"Gwen, NO!" Max lunged forward, but it was too late.
Gwen turned her head. A trail of blood ran from her nose, but she forced a shaky, defiant smile at Subaru. "Now it's the fourth time... doofus."
The beam hit.
The impact shattered the ground itself. Gwen's disc-shield held for one impossible second long enough for Max to wrap his arms around both kids and drag them behind cover. But the shockwave from the beam still threw the trio away
The Negative 10 weren't so lucky. Their glowing green containment units sat exposed on the open plateau. The main beam swept over them like a furnace. The cages melted in an instant, energy fields collapsing. Screams ripped through the air as the villains inside melted alive. One by one the units erupted in fountains of molten slag and hot plasma.
Max and Gwen were hurled in different directions. Max slammed into a tree with a sickening thud, his body curling protectively over Gwen as she went limp beside him.
Subaru was thrown the opposite way, tumbling through gravel until his skin shredded. His white T-shirt was now a rag soaked in spreading stains of red.
His vision swam. He saw the dust settling, the dark silhouette of Vilgax's boots approaching, and then... his family. Grandpa Max lay unmoving, his back a mess of purple bruises and blood. Gwen lay limp, blood trickling from her mouth.
'They... can't be...'
The pain in his arm was sharp, but the rage in his chest drowned it out. Subaru forced his broken body up. His fingers clawed at the dirt as he dragged himself to his feet. He limped toward Vilgax, eyes burning with hatred.
"VILGAX! I WILL KILL YOU!"
The Omnitrix flared, but the green light stuttered.
Vilgax stepped through the rolling smoke of the blasting beam. "Foolish." he rumbled, voice raspy and menacing. "Tonight you shall die alongside them. I will reclaim it... no matter the cost."
He loomed over the boy. Subaru didn't flinch. He stood his ground, staring straight into the conqueror's eyes.
Vilgax roared and raised a massive cybernetic fist to crush him. Subaru slammed his hand onto the watch just as the fist descended.
FLASH!
Four red-skinned arms shot upward, bracing against the blow. The earth beneath Subaru's feet exploded into a crater from the sheer pressure. They traded blows, each collision sending shockwaves that cleared the surrounding dust as Four Arms drove a double-fisted hook into Vilgax's ribs.
The conqueror didn't even flinch.
"IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE. TENNYSON? PATHETIC."
He caught Four Arms' upper wrists. His cybernetic fingers crushed the bones until they popped. Four Arms' scream was raw. With a flick of his wrist. Vilgax hurled him away.
Four Arms tumbled through stone and trees, snapping them like kindling. His vision blurred into a mess of dust.
FLASH!
Diamondhead erupted from the dust, his crystalline body gleaming under the moonlight. He charged Vilgax like a battering ram, formed a jagged spike from his fist, and lunged for the throat.
Vilgax caught the spike in one hand and squeezed. Cracks spider-webbed across Diamondhead's arm until the diamond shattered into crystal shards.
"You think this will save you, child?" Vilgax snarled, backhanding the alien so hard its head cracked.
The transformation flickered and died mid-fall. Subaru hit the ground as himself, gasping, blood pouring from a gash above his eye.
The Omnitrix dial was smoking. It burned. The device was overworked, its DNA sequences destabilizing as it tried to protect a user whose body was failing.
FLASH!
Heatblast erupted into existence. He didn't just throw fire he turned the entire plateau into a furnace, using the inferno to mask his position as he hurled fireball after fireball, each one fueled by his hatred.
Vilgax stood in the flames, red eyes glowing like a maniac. "Fire? Against me?"
Vilgax simply clapped his massive hands. The shockwave snuffed the flames and sent Heatblast tumbling. He lunged. smashed his fist into Heatblast's gut with enough force to break a tank, then caught the burning alien by the leg, lifted him high, and slammed him down so hard the rock beneath them melted.
The green light was now a dying pulse. Please... not now..."
FLASH!
XI.RS streaked out of the smoke like a blue-and-black lightning bolt, the world reduced to streaks of gray and green as Subaru pushed the speedster form to its limit.
His alien heart slammed against his ribs, every frantic breath carrying the echo of broken bones from Four Arms and the burning cracks left by Diamondhead. He was running, putting distance between himself and the monster, Increasing his velocity faster.
Vilgax stood motionless in the crater, red eyes following the blue streak with bored amusement.
XLR8 banked harder a living tornado now, spiraling around the conqueror at a widening orbit.
"Just a little more distance... more speed...'
The Omnitrix flared green for a single, stuttering heartbeat. XLR8 curled inward, limbs folding tight as the transformation changed into Cannonbolt mid-dash-a spinning sphere of armoured alien, rocketing forward like a meteor.
Dust and shattered bark trailed behind him in a roaring vortex, the sonic boom shaking the entire place as he locked onto Vilgax.
Vilgax didn't dodge. He didn't even shift his feet.
His arm-bracers hissed with pressurized steam, the Malaxian Strength Boosters surging to full power in a low mechanical growl that cut through the thunder.
"Predictable," he rumbled, voice dripping contempt.
He met the incoming Cannonbolt with a single perfect punch &mdash, fist thrust forward at the exact moment of Cannonbolt's momentum. The impact was cataclysmic. Armoured plating cracked. The force hurled Cannonbolt skyward in a wild spiraling arc as the world flipped end over end and he finally smashed into the ground.
Cannonbolt coughed, the taste of blood filling his mouth. Above him, Vilgax's falling from the sky on him. "damn..."
The conqueror dropped. Fists came down like twin hammers.
FLASH!
Frankenstrike's massive arms blocked the punch just in time. Electricity exploded in blinding white arcs as Frankenstrike poured every volt of his rage into the surge.
Vilgax didn't flinch. He reached through the lightning and clamped a hand around Frankenstrike's throat.
"You still don't understand." Vilgax growled, voice dripping with digust. "No matter how many skins you wear, you are still just a weak child who can't bring out the full potential of the Omnitrix."
He slammed Frankenstrike into the earth once, twice, three times before spinning and hurling him toward the crater where his family had been knocked out.
Frankenstrike hit the dirt and the transformation change back, leaving Subaru in his human form. He lay there bruised and staring at the empty space above.
He looked to his left and saw Grandpa Max crawling, face pale, teeth clenched in agony, trying to drag an unconscious Gwen toward the Rustbucket.
Vilgax stepped through the smoke, his bloody red eyes glowing like twin embers. "You need more hate, Tennyson. Let me help you with that."
With a casual flick of his wrist, Vilgax signaled his fleet. The cannons of the flagship and ten surrounding destroyers ships. They weren't aiming at Subaru. They were locked onto the wounded old man and unconscious little girl.
The fearless boy who had never felt fear no matter the odds now finally experienced the cold, paralyzing grip of true terror-not for himself, but for them.
"NOOOOO!"
Subaru scrambled to his feet and sprinted toward his family. He slammed his fist onto the Omnitrix again and again, tears streaming down his face and mixing with the blood and grime.
Max looked up, seeing his grandson's panicked face. He glanced at the sky where the cannons glowed a lethal pre-fire orange, then at Gwen tucked under his arm. There was nowhere to run. No cover. No time.
The fleet opened fire.
A blinding pillar of a white beam swallowed them. The ground vaporized in a instance. The shockwave slammed Subaru face-first into the dirt. He tasted blood and dirt, ears ringing so loud he couldn't even hear himself scream.
He clawed at the earth, vision swimming, searching the smoke for any sign of Grandpa Max or Gwen. Nothing. Just ash where they had been standing.
They were gone.
A guttural tore out of Subaru's throat. He staggered upright, body shaking, tears cutting clean lines through the blood and grime on his face. His hands trembled as he slammed the Omnitrix over and over, but it wasn't working.
"ΑΑΑΑΗΗΗΗΗΗΗ!"
The scream cracked into something wild. He grabbed the faceplate the limiter with his left hands and ripped it off the watch, then hurled the broken piece into the dirt.
Tears kept pouring. His eyes were wide and manic.
Vilgax stepped through the smoke, red eyes narrowing in suspicion. He tapped his earpiece. "Scan the perimeter. High alert."
"My Lord," the flagship commander crackled back, voice trembling. "The orbital army is engaging Plumber reinforcements, but... a few ships broke our line. They went invisible. I didn't wish to disturb your battle."
"Incompetent fool!" Vilgax roared. "You allowed Plumbers to ghost through our sensors?!" He cut the feed.
They are finally here... He turned his attention back to Subaru.
Subaru stood up. His movements were mechanical, like a puppet being jerked by invisible wires. He didn't look at Vilgax. He slammed his bleeding palm onto the exposed Omnitrix.
GREEN LIGHT PIERCED THE CLOUDS.
A shadow the size of a mountain swallowed the battlefield. Way Big rose into the stratosphere, blades glinting along his arms, face twisted in the same broken, screaming expression Subaru had worn a second ago. Then he looked down at the tiny speck of the conqueror.
"YOU TOOK THEM FROM MEI" the Titan roared, voice shaking the clouds like thunder. "I'LL KILL, EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"
Vilgax took a step back. "Damn you, Azmuth..."
Way Big didn't give him time to finish. A foot the size of a city block came down. Vilgax barely rolled aside as the shockwave hurled him across the plateau.
The fleet swarmed like hornets. Lasers raked across Way Big's chest, drawing glowing lines of blood. He didn't flinch. He roared again and snatched a ship out of the sky. He crushed it in one massive fist, then swung the wreckage like a ball, smashing two more ships into burning scrap.
Another ship tried to flank him. Way Big backhanded it so hard the hull folded like paper. He grabbed a third, tore its in half and hurled the burning scrap straight into Vilgax's flagship. The explosion lit the sky orange.
"TLL TEAR YOU ALL APART!" Way Big screamed through the titan's mouth, voice cracking even at that scale. Tears streaked down his cheeks as he stomped another squadron into the ground.
Vilgax stood on his feet with a savage grin. "Yes... this is the hate I wanted."
High above, the Command Mothership shuddered. A sleek black blade launched from its underbelly a sword trailing crimson energy. It arrowed straight toward Vilgax like a guided missile. The moment his hand closed around the hilt, the sword's material ignited blood-red, humming with energy.
He leaped and landed on Way Big's enormous foot. The sword flashed upward in a vicious arc, slicing deep into the Titan's ankle. Cosmic flesh parted. Blood sprayed like rain across the area.
Way Big screamed. The pain exploded through every nerve. His massive hand slammed down instinctively, trying to crush the insect on his foot.
Vilgax dodged at the last heartbeat, rolling aside with a mocking tone. "Too slow, boy! Even a god bleeds when I cut him!"
The Mothership's main cannon locked on. A blinding lance of plasma slammed into Way Big's chest. The force hurled the Titan backward. Sky and earth flipped wildly as Way Big tumbled through the air and crashed miles away, carving a new canyon. Dust and rock exploded outward.
For one shattering heartbeat his world drowned in black. Then Way Big rose a titan whose fury clawed back from oblivion.
The Titan climbed to his feet, eyes wild. "I DON'T CARE!" Way Big roared. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
He snatched two more destroyers from the sky like toys, crushing them together until the hulls folded and exploded in twin fireballs. A squadron of airship swarmed his face. Way Big smashed them out of the air, smearing them across his palm like insects. Another cruiser tried to attack him but Way Big caught it mid-flight, tore it in half, and hurled the burning husk straight into a cluster of ships. The sky lit up with a chain of orange detonations.
Vilgax sprinted across the shattered ground, sword blazing red, voice dripping venom. "Look at you! Crying like a child! Pathetic! Your family died and all you can do is scream you still can't even hit me?"
Way Big's vision tunneled. The distance between them vanished in a single impossible stride. His hand came down like the end of the world.
Vilgax thrust the sword upward at the last second. The red blade sank deep into the Titan's finger. Burning pain flared across cosmic flesh, but the hand kept falling.
The impact smashed Vilgax into the dirt-
Once!
Twice!!
Thrice!!!
The ground cratering deeper with every hammer blow.
"DIE DIE DIE!" Subaru screamed, voice cracking raw even at planetary scale. "DIE YOU RASTARD!"
The fleet kept firing. Lasers raked his back, plasma bombs detonated against his shoulders. He felt them like distant stings. Numb. Irrelevant. Only the sword in his hand and the crunch of Vilgax's body under his fist mattered.
Again and again the hand rose and fell.
Way Big snarled through the pain and pinched the burning sword between two massive fingers, ripping it free from his own finger in a spray of glowing cosmic blood. He re reversed the blade in in a single brutal motion and thrust it downward like a falling star, aiming straight for Vilgax's chest.
A second colossal blast hammered Way Big square in the back.
The sword tore free from his grip and tumbled through the air, clattering into the dirt beside the conqueror. The Titan staggered, foot slipping. The world tilted as he toppled forward, crashing down in a mountain-shaking avalanche of dust and broken stone.
Vilgax's laughter echoed from the crater below, weak but still alive.
The Mothership locked its main cannon again.
A third beam fired down. Directly onto Way Big's chest.
The body had taken too much. Three planet-cracking hits. The cosmic form convulsed, cosmic energy flickering wildly. Way Big felt it in his breaking soul itself; every nerve burned with unimaginable pain.
He was going to die.
But the watch wasn't going to let him die here. Not like this. Green light exploded across the Titan's chest.
FLASH!
Buzzshock erupted into existence flat on the ground beneath the crushing weight of the attack. The electric alien's body slammed hard into the dirt as living electricity crackled across his frame. He absorbed the full force of the ongoing beam, arcs of stolen plasma dancing wildly over his conductors.
Then Buzzshock thrust both arms upward and fired it straight back at the Mothership in one massive lightning bolt of redirected plasma.
The beam slammed into the flagship's shields. The shields flared bright white, overloaded, and shattered in a spectacular cascade of sparks and cracking energy. The Mothership itself stayed intact.
Red light flared again. Subaru lay on the ground as a human.
He lay flat on his back in the shattered dirt, chest heaving in weak, wet gasps. Blood soaked his torn shirt and pooled beneath him. Bruises and gashes covered his arms, his face, his legs.
His eyes stared straight up through the smoke and fire toward the massive silhouette of the Mothership hanging high in the sky.
Dozens of smaller dropships peeled off and flew downward.
Boots hit the ground in heavy thuds Vilgax's foot army. Dozens of armoured Chimerian soldiers fanned out. weapons humming, red targeting lasers sweeping the area.
He tried to push himself up. His arms gave out. He collapsed again, cheek pressed to the ground. vision blurring. Can't... move.
They closed in like wolves. Not close enough to touch him yet, but the circle tightened with every second-
Thirty meters!!!
Twenty-five!!
Twenty...!
One soldier spoke, voice distorted through his helmet. "The Omnitrix bearer is down! Secure the boy!"
Subaru's fingers twitched uselessly toward the red dial. A broken whisper slipped out between bloody lips.
"...Grandpa... Gwen... I tried..."
The lead soldier raised a hand. "Take him alive. Lord Vilgax wants the boy conscious when he ki-"
The sky lit up with new fire..
Four Plumber stealth cruisers dropped their invisibility cloaks directly above the ground troops, cannons roaring. Blue-white energy beams tore into the Chimerian squads, explosions blooming across the dirt in precise, devastating bursts. Soldiers scattered and returned fire, but the Plumbers had the high ground.
Five more Plumber ships screamed in from the flanks pure distraction and denial. They tore through the air, shredding any Vilgax fighter or dropship that dared fly near Subaru's position. Missiles streaked. Energy lances criss-crossed the sky. The airspace around the boy became a deadly no-fly zone of fire.
The dust in the area choked the air, thick with the smell of burnt ground and fire. Through the haze, a squad of five Plumbers breached the crater from the north, their silhouettes cutting through the dust.
They moved with the precision. Two veteran alien Plumbers took point, their heavy blasters shooting as they suppressed the remnants of Vilgax's southern land army. Behind them, two more Plumbers formed a tight defensive perimeter, eyes scanning the horizon.
In the center of the formation, the medic dropped to his knees beside the boy,
"Hey, kid! Look at me!" The medic's voice was sharp, accompanied by a gentle slap to Subaru's soot-covered cheek.
"Stay awake. I need you to focus. Eyes on me. Tennysont"
Subaru's eyes were glassy, rolling back as his body finally began to shut down from the strain of the Master Control. The medic slapped a glowing injector against his neck. Cold relief flooded his veins, just enough to keep him from slipping away.
"He's secured!" the medic barked into his comms.
"Everyone fall back to the extraction ship!" the team leader snapped. "Diamond formation! Protect the medic and the boy. We are not losing him here. Movel"
The squad shifted instantly. Armoured bodies closed around Subaru like living shields. The medic scooped the limp boy into a fireman's carry and broke into a dead sprint toward the northern ridge.
The team followed, walking backward and facing the enemy the whole way.
Subaru's head lolled against the medic's chest, breathing ragged. "Grampa... Gwen..."
"Listen to me, kid," the medic huffed, dodging a stray energy bolt. "They're alive. You hear me? Max is already back in the fight-stubborn old man wouldn't stay down. The medic looked away for a second. "He is the greatest Plumber after all. And your cousin is being treated right now. They're okay. Just hold on."
Subaru's eyes snapped wide. A desperate, trembling hand clutched the medic's tactical vest. "Wha... what?"
"Yeah, kid. Just hold-"
A jagged serrated blade thrust clean through the back of the medic's skull and out the front. Red blood dripped hot onto the boy's cheek. Subaru couldn't even make a sound.
The medic's body went limp mid-stride.
Subaru fell through his arm and hit the ground with a dull thud. He scrambled backward, breath catching in his throat as his ears started working again and the silence of the plateau was replaced by the sound of dying screams.
He turned his head. The formation was gone.
Two Plumbers lay in the dirt and one sliced perfectly in half, the other with a smoking cavern where his chest used to be.
Through the settling dust stood Vilgax. He was bleeding, his armor cracked and his breathing heavy, but the fire in his red bloody eyes had turned into pure malice.
"Did you think you could run?"
Vilgax's voice was a low, terrifying rumble. He reached down and snatched the third soldier by the throat, his massive fingers closing like a vice.
CRACK
He tossed the corpse aside like a used rag doll.
"Did you really think you could win?!"
Vilgax stepped toward the last survivor, a soldier whose blue blood pooled from a severed leg. The man was sobbing. clawing at the dirt. "Please... no... please don't kill me-"
Vilgax didn't look at the soldier. He kept his eyes locked on Subaru. He placed a massive heavy boot on the man's face, slowly increasing the pressure, grinding the soldier's head into the earth. With a final sickening crunch, the
screaming stopped.
Vilgax stood over the remains, his shadow swallowing Subaru whole. "Now... who is coming to save you, Tennyson?"
Subaru stayed firm. He met Vilgax's eyes without flinching, blood still leaking from his nose and hand. The red glow on the Omnitrix dial flickered and snapped to an unstable green.
It was all back to the start of their fight.
Same hate burned between them. The only difference was the blood both of them were soaked in it now, breathing hard, bleeding in ways that went far deeper than bone.
Subaru's voice came out raw, cracked, but steady. "You're never touching anyone else, you piece of shit."
Vilgax lunged, closing the distance in a single brutal stride, massive punch already reaching for the hoy.
Subaru moved at the same time. The left hand slamming down toward the watch.
It was a battle against time itself.
That was when the Omnitrix lost control.
The faceplate slammed shut on its own. The green light died instantly, replaced by a violent, stuttering red-and-green strobe. The whole watch started shaking on Subaru's wrist like it was having a seizure, the band digging painfully into his skin.
A sudden force field erupted outward. Vilgax was hurled backward like a ragdoll, slamming into the ground hard enough to carve a trench. He rolled once, twice, and came up snarling.
"What did you do, Tennyson?!"
Subaru bared his teeth. "Shut up!"
Beep-beep-beep-beep-BEEEEEEP!
An alarm screamed so loud it felt like it was splitting Subaru's skull. The dial spun wildly by Itself. faster and faster, while a glitching mechanical voice burst from the watch in rapid, distorted bursts:
"FOREIGN INTERFERENCE DETECTED
UNKNOWN ENTITY ATTEMPTING DIRECT POSSESSION-
PROTECT USER PRIORITY-
SELF-DEFENSE PROTOCOL INITIATED"
Subaru's eyes bulged. "What the-?!"
Inside the watch, every holographic alien silhouette flared bright and then one by one they began to violently distort, twisting and glitching like corrupted code.
Vilgax roared and charged again. "TENNYSONI" He closed the distance, fist cocked back like a wrecking ball.
Subaru looked up at the monster running toward him, the watch still convulsing on his arm.
He closed his fist and swung it forward to meet Vilgax's punch head-on. No hesitation and no fear.
Their fists were inches from colliding when the Omnitrix finally snapped.
The burst light of red-green exploded outward, blinding both of them and blinded them.
Vilgax staggered back, eyes squeezed shut.
When the light finally died and his vision cleared... there was nothing.
Subaru Tennyson was gone.
No body. No watch.
Vilgax stood alone in the blood-soaked crater, chest heaving. "TENNYSON!!!" he bellowed, voice cracking across the plateau like thunder.