Trogs and Wristbands

Chapter 10: Rival Rebellion

Author's note: This chapter might be considered T-rated as it has some slight violence that leads to bloodshed

It was an asteroid in the worse part of the galaxy. It was known to be the hideout of several criminals who had bounty prices as high as a satellite. There were several casinos, bars, and places that shouldn't be talked about in front of children. It was one of the worst cesspools in the galaxy, both figuratively and literally. Naturally, that's where NegaMorph was looking for recruits.

NegaMorph sighed to himself as he straightened the collection of paper together in his claws. He knew that he would be eventually forced to do this job. Everyone of high position or power was supposed to personally go to scumhole dumps like this bar to find some new blood. Supposedly, seeing people of great authority was supposed to inspire people to join the Hamsterviel army. Robots were easily built and can be quite intelligent, but they somehow didn't have the same versatility as organic beings. NegaMorph obviously didn't want to be part of this, but as Head Assassin and Collector of Viral Clones, he had to fulfill his duty. Thou the title seemed to ring a bit hollow right now.

However, there was one perk to this. As a reward in advance, Dr. Johnson had installed a new device inside of NegaMorph's arm. It was a series of mechanical parts connected to each other like a spider's web and could fold into almost any weapon NegaMorph could imagine. The variety was increased by connected it to NegaMorph's TechPack. Dr. Johnson called it the Origami Matrix, but NegaMorph had a better name for it: the Web of Lies.

NegaMorph had just filled out the paperwork for the tenth entry today when he heard someone sitting down in the chair on the opposite side of NegaMorph's table. Without looking up, NegaMorph said, "Alright fella, what's your name?" The stranger replied, "Kevin 11." NegaMorph frowned and said, " 'Kevin 11?' What kind of a name is that?" He looked up into the face of the newcomer and they both screamed in surprise. In the third person's point-of-view, it wasn't truly surprising since they both were thinking that they were looking at the most twisted and hodgepodge mutant they've ever seen excluding themselves. And they were probably right. NegaMorph stared up at Kevin and asked, "What kind of mad scientist's lab did you escape from?" "I was about to ask you the same thing," said Kevin. "Ooh," said NegaMorph sarcastically, "like I haven't heard that before." "You're going to hear worse if you don't shut up." NegaMorph grumbled and returned to the entry form, "Age?" "11." NegaMorph looked at Kevin and said, "Aren't you a bit young to join the army?" "Well how old are you?" said Kevin. NegaMorph's visible pupil shifted left and right as he said, "Actually I was only created a few months ago to be frank. But I'm still older than you in biological terms. Now what's you're home planet?" "Earth." Another skeptical look from NegaMorph as he said, "Species?" "I used to be human," said Kevin. NegaMorph put his pen down and said, "OK, normally I would ask about your powers and abilities, but I think I'd like to hear your history first. And I'm not your therapist so don't get too wrapped up in it."

As NegaMorph listened Kevin's story, he felt a slight sympathy about Kevin being kicked out of his home by his family and being constantly being harassed by others. It wasn't until Kevin mentioned a boy named Ben who had a weird alien watch did NegaMorph really pay attention. Some of the abilities that NegaMorph 'inherited' from Viral Chip was that he could think about two separate things at the same time. So as he listened to Kevin drone on, he studied various parts of Kevin's anatomy.

His hair, ears, and pants were obviously from his human form while the main body was based off a Tetramand. Yet NegaMorph identified other parts from different aliens: the arms of a Pyronite, Petrosapien, and Vulpimancer, the wings of a Lepidopterran, the shoulders and back of a Gavinic Mechamorph, the antenna and teeth of a Piscciss Volann, the eye of a Galvan, the tail of a Kineceleran, and the markings of an Ectonurite.

NegaMorph used his private Internet connection to cross-reference these different alien species along with technological transformation devices. When he had a result, NegaMorph asked, "Pardon me for one second, does this watch thing have a particular name?" Kevin nodded and said, "Yeah, it was called the Omnitrix." NegaMorph was now listening to Kevin with true interest. As Kevin's story drew to a close, NegaMorph heard of how Kevin and Vilgax were both trapped in the Null Void. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, how did you escape?" "I happened to have nearby when someone got thrown into the Null Void and I managed to used that portal to get out. Then I escaped before anyone could send me back.

NegaMorph nodded and said, "Kevin, I like your spirit. I can a lot that we have in common; we both were born with strange powers. We both run afoul against a shape-shifting do-gooder with alien powers. Said do-gooder mutated us both into an amalgam of creatures. And we both possess the strong desire to rip that do-gooder to shreds. We even look alike." A beat, "Okay maybe not that, but we sound a lot alike." "My voice is way better sounding than yours," said Kevin. "We'll you're no nightingale yourself," thought NegaMorph but out-loud he said, "I have a proposition for you; join Hamsterviel's army and I'll personally help you get your revenge on Ben." Kevin's Diamondhead arm sharpened to a point as he said, "Kevin 11 doesn't take orders from anyone." NegaMorph thought quickly and said, "Fine then, how about I help you get revenge on Ben, you help me with Morph and work part-time for the Hamsterviel Empire." As proof of his trust, NegaMorph extended his right arm for a friendly shake. Kevin looked hesitatingly at NegaMorph. "What?" said NegaMorph then he remembered that his right hand was actually a fanged mouth and used his Web of Lies to form a robotic hand. Kevin thought for a minute and said, "Put it there, partner." He turned his Diamondhead arm back to normal and shook it with NegaMorph's hand.

"Just wait outside for a minute," said NegaMorph, "I'll finish up right the last bit of this paperwork." As Kevin went outside, NegaMorph looked around conspiratorially before having his Web of Lies form a communicator. He activated it and said, "Connect me to Dr. Johnson." There was a pause for a few moments and then Johnson's voice was heard "-630, what's the meaning of this?" "I just met a human hybrid with connections to the Omnitrix. He's leading me to the boy who's wearing it." "Interesting, when you find the Omnitrix-wielder, get the Omnitrix and bring it to me. It would be very useful to Emperor Hamsterviel." "But what if I can't remove it from the boy?" asked NegaMorph. "Then do what your predecessors were created to do; bite the boy and infect him with the EXP Virus. He'll come after that." NegaMorph grinned widely, showing his needle-like teeth, and said, "You're the boss."

NegaMorph led Kevin to a warehouse where the Hamsterviel army kept their military vehicles. They passed several weapons of mass destruction and store tanks of the EXP Virus. Then they came to a restricted area that was heavily guarded. NegaMorph placed one of his left hands on a scanner and it scanned its DNA. Then the scanner scanned each of NegaMorph's seven eyes and then a microphone was positioned near NegaMorph's primary mouth. NegaMorph spoke his name into it. Suddenly several guns popped out and pointed at Kevin. Then NegaMorph said, "A new recruit," and the guns moved away. They walked into the restricted area and came towards a door marked Test #1011. The door opened to show a rather bland-looking six-person spaceship.

"That's it?" said Kevin, "what's so special about that lame old thing?" "This 'lame old thing' is the latest in the fields of rocket science, nanotechnology, and biotechnology," said NegaMorph. "This ship is the basic design for a ship with the DNA Drive. It adapts to match your appearance, size, and even your powers. Watch this." NegaMorph went over to what looked something like an outlet for a hand on the outside of the ship. He inserted one of his left hands into the machine and there was a small flash of green light. The computer on the spaceship beeped and said, "DNA confirmed. Source: Experiment Negative 630 AKA NegaMorph. Beginning assimilation." The ship began glowing with the same green light.

"While we're waiting," said NegaMorph; "I never heard exactly what your powers were. You said that you had all 10 of the Omnitrix's original aliens' powers plus your energy channeling power, which is why you call yourself Kevin 11?" Kevin rubbed the back of his head and said, "Yeah, but I haven't fully figured out how to use them all yet. I still can't get Upgrade or Grey Matter to work yet." NegaMorph nodded and said, "It'll probably take time. I'm still trying to learn how to use Draco's breath-based powers, even if they are a seventh of the original's power." "You should combine them like I do," said Kevin. NegaMorph blinked and said, "I never thought of that. Perhaps if I put all that firepower into my Nega Blasts…"

The conversation was cut short when the ship said; "Assimilation completed, beginning adaptation." The ship shrank only slightly and turned jet black. The headlights at the front took the same formation as NegaMorph's minor eyes, as well as a sonar detector like his twin ears and a blaster like his larger eye. A sensory antenna grew out of a horn like projection on top of the cockpit. The wings grew spikes and retractable mechanical arms. The grabbing arms took on an appearance similar to NegaMorph's arms on their respective sides, the left side ending with a mouth-like grabber and the right arm branching off into three arms. The three landing legs changed to resemble NegaMorph's legs; a leg that ended with two feet, a tentacle-like leg, and a more mechanical one with a spur on the knee. NegaMorph's tail developed as an additional blaster that slightly resembled a scorpion's tail. The windshield even had a targeting system like NegaMorph's N-shaped mouth. In the end, the ship now had all of NegaMorph's prominent features adapted for the use of a spaceship. NegaMorph grinned and said, "Technology." He jumped into the driver's seat and said, "What are you waiting for? We've got archrivals to destroy." Kevin clambered in and the roof over the NegaMorph ship opened up. The NegaMorph ship blasted out and used the Hyperdrive to zoom all the way to Earth.

Meanwhile on Earth, Ben, Gwen, and Grandpa Max had stopped at a mountain campsite not too far from Cincinnati. They were going to stay there until they could figure out where to go next. But that wasn't the only thing, Draco, Chip, and Morph had taken a few day's off from serving in the army and they decided to spend them with the Tennysons. Of course, they had a lot of things to catch up about. Ben and Gwen recounted about the re-encounter of Dr. Animo while Ben had damaged the watch, Vilgax and Kevin's unexpected return, their visit to the future, the minor incident with Sublimino, Charmcaster's attempt to take the Omnitrix by fluffed transfer spells, and their adventure in Holiday Village.

Right now, Chip was skimming through the hand-sized spell book. "So these are the spells you got from Charmcaster?" he asked. "Yep," said Gwen. "Why do you have the bookmark on the page with the clothes manipulation spell?" "What do you mean?" said Gwen, quickly snatching the book away and flipping to another page, "I had it set on the, uh, keep-milk-fresh-longer spell." "Girls," said Ben, "always fussing about what they're wearing." Suddenly Ben's underwear suddenly went over his head, while he was still wearing them. Gwen looked at Chip and asked, "Did you do that?" "Let's just say I have a bit of feminine pride and leave it at that."

As Ben removed the underwear from his head and painfully put it in its rightful place, he asked, "Where's Draco and Morph?" "Draco's using Sublimino's watch," said Chip. Ben looked the other way and saw that Draco was moving the watch back and forth. He soon discovered that that failed and pressed the small button on the side. The hypno-waves washed over Morph, but it appeared to have no affect. Morph just blinked and turned into Swirly. Before Draco could move, Morph had activated Swirly's power and put Draco in a trance. Morph turned back into himself and said to Draco, "Go bring me some hot dogs." Draco obediently went into the Rustbucket to fetch the wieners. "How did Morph do that?" asked Gwen. "I think there's more to Morph than we currently know," said Chip, "but I'm not all that anxious to dive deeper."

Suddenly one of the monitors in the RV started going off. The beeping woke Draco out of his trance. "What's going on? Where's the fire? And why am I holding a plate of hot dogs?" Morph grabbed the plate saying, "Gimme," and scarfed the entire thing down in one gulp. Plate included. Grandpa Max checked the monitor and said, "There's an alien spaceship coming this way." "Duh," said Ben, "does Earth have any spaceships?" Max's eyes shifted left and right and he said, "Uh, maybe." "What kind of spaceship is it?" asked Gwen. "I can't tell at all." "Me neither," said Morph. "Morph," said Chip, "you're not even looking at the monitor." "I know, I'm looking at the actual ship." Everyone quickly moved to the window to see the spaceship land outside. Ben, Gwen, Draco, and Chip all said, "Ooh!" at the ship's interesting design. "That design looks very familiar," said Draco, "we better find out who owns that."

As everyone left the RV, the cockpit opened up. Quite to everyone's surprise, Kevin 11 came out of it. "Kevin?" cried the Tennysons. "Didn't you say you banished him to the Null Void?" asked Chip. "I got a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card," said Kevin. "Well," said Ben, "I might not have the master control, but I can still kick your butt." "Fat chance," said Kevin, "it won't be our butts being kicked this time." "Oh dear," said Draco, "he's referring to himself in plural, a sure sign of advance insanity." Suddenly a black creature climbed onto Kevin's shoulders and said, "No, he's sane enough." Both Ben and Gwen screamed and yelled, "Space demon!" "There's no such thing as space demons," said Draco, "that's NegaMorph." "Morph's corrupted clone?" asked Gwen. She looked from Morph to NegaMorph and said, "They don't look anything alike." Then both Morph and NegaMorph said at the same time, "And man am I glad for that."

"What do you want?" asked Grandpa Max. "Nothing much," said Kevin, "we just want to kill our hated archrivals, Ben and Morph, and take that watch as well." "What makes you think you can take all six of us at the same time?" said Draco, flexing into his full alien mode. "Just this little sentence," said NegaMorph. "We challenge Ben and Morph to a rivalry match by the Intergalactic Code of Conduct." "We accept," said Ben, "but we're all still going to kick your mutant butts." "Actually Ben," said Draco as he went back to Earth mode, "we can't help you now." "What?" Chip pulled out a copy of the Intergalactic Code of Conduct from out of his torso and opened to a certain page. "It says here that when a rivalry match is called by the book, only people whose archrivals are part of the match can join in. And if we break that rule, we have to wear shock collars that prevent us from using our powers for seven weeks." "How did that fit in there?" asked Gwen as Chip put the book back. "I got a Hammerspace compartment," said Chip.

"Backup or no backup, we can still thrash these guys," said Ben. "Yeah," said Morph and made feeble attempts to hit Kevin. Kevin simply looked down at Morph and let out a bellowing roar. Morph squealed in panic and hid in the Omnitrix. Draco, who was at that time eating refreshments while watching, asked, "Which alien did that come from?" Chip, who was doing the same thing, said, "I think that was from Wildmutt." NegaMorph laughed and said, "Looks like Morph's even weaker than I thought." Ben activated the Omnitrix and said, "We're just warming up." He slammed the face down and turned into Heatblast. Kevin's Heatblast arm fired up at the same time as Heatblast's hands. They both let out large fire blasts at each other. The fire blasts collided and created a smokescreen. Then Heatblast's blast came through and headed straight towards Kevin. Unexpectedly, NegaMorph extended a bit of his trench coat and wrapped it around the fireball. There was a hiss of smoke and the fireball went out. "How'd you do that?" asked Kevin. "My coat's made of shadow," said NegaMorph, "it removes all light and what is fire besides light and heat?" Suddenly Heatblast rocketed through the smoke cloud straight towards Kevin. Kevin spat out a wad of Stinkfly mucus that hit Heatblast right in the face. The goo's explosion threw Heatblast, Kevin, and NegaMorph in different directions. As Heatblast came to his senses, Kevin flew over and pinned him under his foot. "I'm going to trouncing your glowing butt all day long," he said as he readied to give Heatblast a four-way punch. Morph's head popped out of the Omnitrix and said, "Not necessarily." There was a flash of green light and Kevin was thrown off. He looked back to see Fourarms getting back onto his feet. "I may not have the master control anymore," said Fourarms, "but I got the next best thing."

Meanwhile, the others were watching Ben and Kevin duking it out. "You think Ben will be okay?" asked Gwen. "From what I've seen," said Chip, "Ben is a very confident fighter and he shouldn't be in too much trouble. Besides, he's beaten Kevin before, right?" "Yes," said Grandpa Max, "but what about that shadow clone thing?" Chip turned to Draco and asked, "How often does NegaMorph fight by the rules?" "Not often," replied Draco. "That's what I was afraid of," said Chip, "I think we can do one thing; we can sabotage NegaMorph's ship." "How do you know it belongs to NegaMorph's?" asked Gwen. "That ship is obviously has a DNA-Drive installed and it's currently set to NegaMorph's DNA. I've heard of the DNA-Drive, it's one of the Hamsterviel Empire's top secret projects. I naturally found out by hacking into their database. From what I've found out, it is possible to deprogram the ship so that it can revert to its blank, basic form. Could take a while to do so, but we've got time."

Meanwhile, Ben had shifted to Stinkfly was attempting to put some distance between him and Kevin. It would have worked if Kevin hadn't combined Stinkfly's wing power with XLR8's speed to keep up with Ben. "Face it, scumwad," said Kevin, "my combos can beat anything you can throw at me." "Well combos can work to ways," said Stinkfly and he spat a ball of slime towards Kevin's wings. Kevin caught the ball and said, "Is that the best you got?" "Not really," said Stinkfly. Kevin looked at the slimeball and realized he caught with his Heatblast arm. "Oh boy," said Kevin and the slimeball exploded. The explosion threw Kevin out of the skies. "Now that that's over," said Stinkfly, "time to get back to the others." He was about fly towards the campsite, but suddenly a black shape intersected him on lengthened back appendages with ribbed membrane between them. "Going somewhere?" said NegaMorph. "I don' know about me," said Stinkfly, "but you're going down. He did a spin in midair and whacked NegaMorph with his stinger. After NegaMorph recovered his senses, he looked around and saw that Stinkfly had disappeared. "Where'd that brat go to?" he asked. Suddenly NegaMorph felt Ghostfreak's clammy hands go into his head. NegaMorph reached around and grabbed Ghostfreak with his mouth-hand. "How are you doing this?" asked Ghostfreak as he tried to escape NegaMorph's fangs. "I'm plasma-based too. Plus I secrete a substance that temporary solidifies you." NegaMorph frowned and said, "It appears that the EXP Virus doesn't affect while the Omnitrix is activated. But Morph will tire eventually. 'Till then." NegaMorph activated his Web of Lies and fired his plasma blaster straight into Ghostfreak. It didn't kill him or cause a major wound, but it did caused him to fall towards the ground.

On the ground, Kevin was getting up from the slimeball's explosion and noticed that Ghostfreak was plummeting towards him with no way to stop. Kevin grinned and sharpened his Diamondhead arm to impale Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak noticed this and shifted to Diamondhead. As Kevin thrust his arm out towards Diamondhead, Diamondhead turned his left hand into a crystal battering ram and slammed it against Kevin's arm. The combination of the force from Ben's fall and the lesser quality of Kevin's crystal shattered Kevin's arm up to the shoulder, leaving a small chuck of crystal. Diamondhead didn't escape unscathed as Kevin's strength augmented the thrust and the point had more concentrated pressure, so his arm was broken in a similar way as Kevin. Kevin grabbed the stump of his crystalline arm in pain. He could grow it back, but not as fast as Ben. As soon as Diamondhead had finished regrowing his arm, NegaMorph landed on top of him. Then there was a flash of green light and NegaMorph found himself in the middle of a punching and kicked whirlwind. Then XLR8 threw NegaMorph at Kevin. The two of them were thrown back towards a sizeable pond. Then Wildmutt jumped at then out and pushed them into the water.

As NegaMorph tried to regain his focus after the spinning attack and the throw, Ripjaws swam up behind him and swallowed most of him. He shook him around a bit and then spat him out. As NegaMorph landed on the shore, he said, "Huh, it's normally me who does the biting around here." Suddenly Kevin came flying out of the pond and landed on top of NegaMorph. "Ow, that really hurts." Ripjaws' head came out of the water and asked, "Had enough?" "Ha," said Kevin, "how'd you think I survived my fall of the Golden Gate Bridge?" "Fine, but you realize your disarmed right?" Kevin suddenly noticed that the yellow parts of his Heatblast arm were very dim and his Stinkfly wings were limp and drooping. Morph popped out of the Omnitrix and said, "My turn." He activated his TechPack and armed a large magnet. The magnet shot beams of magnetic energy at Kevin that threw him back a few yards. The glowing green lines on his Upgrade shoulders and back flickered and went out while his XLR8 tail assumed a slightly jagged position. "Score one for the TechPack," said Morph. Suddenly a ball of black energy flew into the pond and caused and an explosion that threw Morph and Ripjaws out. Morph stood up with his mouth on his left arms' elbow still smoking. "And score two for the super-charged Nega Blast," said NegaMorph. As Ripjaws and Morph reached the climax of the elevation, Morph made a swan dive into the Omnitrix and caused Ripjaws to shift to Cannon Bolt. As NegaMorph started calmly walking away, he heard a whistling sound like something large dropping straight down. He looked up and said, "Not again." Cannon Bolt landed on top of NegaMorph and proceeded to bowl straight into Kevin who had just gotten up.

Cannon Bolt rolled back into the campsite and uncurled. Then he sniffed and asked, "What's that smell?" Morph poked his head out of the Omnitrix and looked at Cannon Bolt's back. NegaMorph was plastered onto there. "Ew," said Morph and he peeled NegaMorph off with a stick. He tossed NegaMorph through the air and he landed on Kevin who had walked back into the campsite. NegaMorph pulled himself back together and noticed that Kevin was looking worse for the wear. "Let me help," said NegaMorph and put the end of his tail to Kevin's back. There was a flash of red molecular energy and Kevin's body recovered. Then Cannon Bolt transformed, this time into Wildvine. NegaMorph laughed and said, "Is that all you could come up with, a weed? We can burn to a crisp." Wildvine plucked two seeds from his back and said, "Burn this." He threw the seeds towards them and NegaMorph nonchalantly swallowed them. Suddenly a queer look appeared on NegaMorph's face and he exploded into several small pieces of plasma. Most of the plasma landed on Wildvine for some reason. Wildvine folded his arms and said, "Game over." "So managed to blow up that blob," said Kevin, "big deal. I can still pummel you." Unknown to Wildvine, several of the plasma pieces were sneaking behind him and the plasma on his body was converging. "Forget it Kevin," said Wildvine. "I know all your tricks and how to beat them. You may be able to do combos, but I have a wider of variety powers. You don't have anything left." "Oh yeah?" said Kevin, "I still have one thing." "What's that?" Suddenly a familiar dark voice said, "The element of surprise."

Suddenly the plasma pieces sprang at Wildvine and wrapped his arms to his body so he couldn't use them. The plasma pieces took the form of NegaMorph. "You really think that bomb-seed could destroy me? I've regenerated from worse than that. I can't match the shapeshifting of your Omnitrix, but I know how to stop it." One of his left hands crackled with molecular energy as he plunged it into the Omnitrix logo. There was a shower of sparks as the Omnitrix's and Morph's positive molecular energy made green sparks while NegaMorph's negative molecular energy created red sparks. Then NegaMorph's hand started to slowly come out of the Omnitrix. Then there was a flash of red light and Morph was sent flying towards Kevin. Kevin grabbed him with his Diamondhead arm. But before Morph could squeeze out, Kevin formed a crystal orb over him. As the light from the flash dimmed down, everyone could see NegaMorph holding Ben. "Now," said NegaMorph, "I'll be taking that watch." He reached out to grab it, but the Omnitrix lit up and let off a feedback pulse. NegaMorph was blown one way and Ben was sent flying over a nearby cliff.

Ben started to scream as he started to fall, but suddenly felt himself stop in midair. He looked up to see a mechanical tentacle-arm holding his right arm. The arm slowly lifted Ben up towards the top. As Ben neared the top, he said, "Thanks Chip, I owe you one." Suddenly he saw a black figure in front of him that said, "Now don't thank me yet." The arm that was holding him wasn't Chip's arm; it was the arm on NegaMorph's back. Ben quickly moved his other arm to activate the Omnitrix but NegaMorph caught that with his mechanical crab's arm. "Seems like you and the Omnitrix are inseparable. Oh well, I guess you two are a package deal." NegaMorph bared the fangs in his mouth-hand and buried them deep into Ben's left arm.

Ben screamed as he felt NegaMorph's teeth penetrate his bloodstream. Then he felt a burning coming from the bite and flowing to the rest of his body. His scream stopped as he loss consciousness. NegaMorph put Ben's body over his shoulder and started walking towards the other side of the RV. "Hey!" called Kevin, "what'd you do to him?" "Oh, I gave him a healthy dose of EXP Virus. Emperor Hamsterviel would be happy to have the Omnitrix-wielder under his command." "Wait a minute," said Kevin stepping forward menacingly, "we had a deal. You help me get my revenge, I help you get your revenge." "Well he's going to be serving in the Imperial Army as an experiment for the rest of his life, isn't that enough?" "No," said Kevin, "I wanted to kill him myself." "Well so what?" said NegaMorph as he held up the contract Kevin signed in one of his left hands, "I already have you under contract for full-time services in the army." "You said it would be part-time!" yelled Kevin. "Well, that's what you get for not reading the fine print." Suddenly a fireball vaporized the contract, NegaMorph's three left arms that branched of from the same elbow that had a mouth on it, and a small percentage of the left half of his body. As NegaMorph regenerated, he glared over at Kevin, whose Heatblast arm was still flaming from the attack. "No one double-crosses Kevin 11!" he yelled as he threw Morph's orb to the other side of the RV. NegaMorph did similarly with Ben's body and leaped towards Kevin.

Draco, Chip, Gwen, and Grandpa Max had just finished with 'reprogramming' NegaMorph's ship, when Ben's body and Morph's orb fell back into the campsite. Immediately everyone dropped what they were doing and ran over to help them. Morph was okay because the orb didn't break, but Ben was still under the effects of the EXP Virus. "What happened?" asked Gwen. "It appears that NegaMorph must have bit Ben," said Chip, "we have to treat him immediately before the virus brainwashes him." Grandpa Max was already dressing Ben's wound as he asked, "What about Morph?" "Oh that's easy," said Draco, "watch this." Draco grabbed Chip and folded his legs together so they made a point. Then he put Chip on top of the orb. Draco slammed Chip down on the head. Chip's leg acted like a chisel and shattered Morph's prison. "Morph," said Gwen, "where's Kevin and NegaMorph. "They're behind the Rustbucket fighting. NegaMorph double-crossed Kevin after he bit Ben." "I wonder if NegaMorph will try the same thing to Kevin?" pondered Chip. There was a chomping sound and then they heard Kevin roar in pain. Then NegaMorph went flying over the RV and landed a couple yards away from them. "I say he just did," said Draco.

Kevin jumped over the RV and landed next to NegaMorph. A fresh bite mark was visible on his left Wildmutt arm. "Looks like your bite doesn't work on me," said Kevin, "let's see if mine will." Kevin stretched his mouth to an impressive size, revealing all of his Ripjaws teeth. He grabbed NegaMorph with his mouth and shook him about before spitting him back out a couple of yards away. "Okay," said NegaMorph getting back onto his four feet, "I can only stand being in the mouth of two people in one day, and you just overdone my quota." The six eyes in his head flashed and laser beams came out of them towards Kevin. Kevin in response charged up an energy attack. But as the energy fired from his hand, it changed from bluish electricity to something red. Kevin's beam went through NegaMorph's laser and hit him in the chest. As NegaMorph's chest recovered, he looked very surprised. "Was that molecular energy?" asked Draco. "It appears that the EXP Virus isn't as ineffective as we thought. While Kevin's body couldn't mutate any further and his strength of will made the brainwashing part useless, the virus must have caused Kevin to unlock previously dormant powers." Kevin heard all this with his Wildmutt hearing and said, "Really, then this will be more fun than I planned." Blacked and green tentacles emerged from Kevin's Upgrade shoulders and grabbed a nearby barbecue grill. They merged with the grill and turned it into a flame-thrower. Kevin then used the flame-thrower along with his Heatblast to torch NegaMorph badly.

Finally, NegaMorph decided that he had enough and made a leap over Kevin's head and started running towards where his ship was. But when he arrived at the sight, he saw that the ship had somehow been reverted to its blank original form. "What the-" Chip smirked and said, "What do you think we've been doing while you guys were fighting? Playing backgammon?" NegaMorph looked around and realized he was surrounded. He raised his hands in the air and said, "Well, it looks like you caught me. But before you take me to jail, I'd like to tell you guys an interesting fact. Earth's satellite ring is capable of contacting other planets even if they're not being used for that. That would be useful for intergalactic communication, or in my case, a quick getaway." NegaMorph's Web of Lies created a satellite dish, which sent a beam of fractal codes towards the sky. Before NegaMorph disappeared, he said, "Keep the boy as long as you can. He'll come to us." Then he was gone.

In the meantime, Ben was now looking feverish and was shivering all over. "We have to do something," said Gwen. "I was already on it," said Chip and his email dinged. "Just a second," he said and he turned on his headset. "I have your connection. Are you ready? Are you sure? Okay then, here we go." Chip used his screen-portal ability to reach inside his own computer screen. He reached around in there until he said, "Gotcha!" He pulled hard and Kala came out of his chest. He put Kala, who was a bit dizzy from traveling via intergalactic email, by Ben. She studied Ben for a second and said, "I can fix this." "You can?" said Morph. "I've studied just enough of NegaMorph's DNA to know how to prevent the brainwashing, as long as I have an Inhibitor Wristband." "He's already got one," said Draco, pointing at the Omnitrix. Kala quickly started pressing several of the Omnitrix's buttons. Then she opened a small satchel she was wearing and pulled out a small black gummy. Or so it looked like, but the way it squirmed sort of gave away its true identity. Normally, Kala only had to sample a Virus Clone's DNA and she'd be able to heal someone. But NegaMorph's DNA was somehow more complicated and required repeated dosages to heal different people, who has bitten by the Shadow Clone. Kala placed the piece of antenna in her mouth with some disgust at the flavor and placed her paws on either side of Ben's wound. A pinkish red aura covered first her paws and then the wound. Slowly the aura dimmed as the antibodies absorbed into Ben's body. Kala stood up and said, "That's all I can do."

Suddenly the Omnitrix started beeping loudly and started letting off a lot of green light. "Is that supposed to happen?" asked Kevin. "No," said Draco. "Didn't think so." Suddenly the Omnitrix created a dome of light that engulfed Ben's body. "He's gonna blow!" yelled Chip as he dived behind a nearby tree. Everyone got out of the way as the Omnitrix let out a blinding light, not dissimilar to the one it made when Ben broke off the face in the Everglades. The light prevented anyone from seeing what was happening to Ben. Eventually, the light went out and everyone saw what happened to Ben. His form has changed drastically and he now resembled Stitch, which wasn't all that uncommon among EXP victims, but with his original hair color and that his arms, legs, back, and head had black strips that connected to the Omnitrix that was unchanged on his wrist. Ben had regained consciousness and was now looking at himself. After making a full body inspection, he said, "That's interesting."

Chip walked over to him and made a quick scan. He checked the results and said, "Well, asides from your ability to use the Omnitrix, you're not that different from basic experiments. It says you have Heatblast's heat resistance, Diamondhead's endurability, Fourarms' strength, Grey Matter's intelligence, XLR8's speed, Ripjaws' jaw strength and swimming, Stinkfly's ability to cling to walls, Upgrade's regenerating, Wildmutt's senses and abilities, Ghostfreak's psychic abilities, Cannon Bolt's flexible skeleton, and Wildvine's claws on a basic experiment's standard. More abilities will probably be included as you unlock more aliens." "But how can I become human again?" asked Ben. "Simple," said Stitch, "there's a code you can punch in so that the Omnitrix will change you back. There's also this other code, but I'm not sure what that's for." Ben read the second code and pressed the buttons in the right sequence. Suddenly the Omnitrix sank into the black stripe on Ben's arm. Then the black stripes on his body started to cover the rest of him. Eventually, all that wasn't covered were his face, ears, belly, and paws. The Omnitrix's wires appeared on his back while the actual loge was on his chest. Curiously, the logo wasn't white and gray like the other logos but green and black with the buttons on the rim. Chip checked his data and said, "That body armor not only helps protect you from harm, it also helps focus your experimental powers."

"If the checkup's over," said Kevin 11; "I'm out of here." "Aren't you going to try to kill me?" asked Ben. "Nah," said Kevin, "I've had enough fighting for one day. 'Sides, I don't wanna whoop your butt 'till that virus is gone. I'm gonna finish you when you're completely human again." "Where are you gonna go?" asked Morph. "I'm going to take a cruise around the galaxy, in my new ship." Kevin inserted his hand into the scanning machine on the DNA-Drive ship. The computer beeped, "DNA confirmed. Source: Kevin 11. Beginning assimilation." As the ship analyzed Kevin's DNA, he said, "Don't expect me to go easy on you next time. I won't kill you, but you are going to get hurt." Then the ship's computer beeped and said; "Assimilation completed. Beginning adaptation." The ship quickly changed into a fighter ship with Kevin's color designs in their respective places. The interesting parts, however, were the two blasting arms that were capable of shooting flames and crystal shards and the secondary blasting arms that had razor-sharp claws and doubled as sensors. Kevin 11 jumped into his new ship, said, "Smell you later, losers!" and blasted off. As Kevin's ship disappeared into the sky, Gwen said, "Is it me or is Kevin's vocabulary getting worse?" "You think he'll ever reform?" asked Draco. "That would take a therapist like Lilo to do that," said Chip.

"We should really head back to headquarters," said Kala. "Yeah, yeah," said Draco; "too bad this couldn't have ended better." "Actually," said Ben, "this isn't so bad. You think I could come with you guys and fight the Hamsterviel Empire?" "Slow down there, kid," said Chip, "It's a full-time job and you still have your summer vacation to spend. How about doing a part-time thing instead? We'll call if we need you." "Sounds find to me," said Ben as he grabbed something from out of the cooler. "Of course, they are a few things you need to know about being an experiment," said Morph. "Like what?" asked Ben and he gulped down a soda. Draco blinked and said, "Well, the first thing was that you can't eat or drink caffeine or lots of sugar, but it looks like you're going learn it the hard way." Suddenly Ben's eyes started to twitch spasmodically and his whole body was vibrating. "Hit the deck!" cried Kala. Now one of the few things harder to manage than a 10-year old boy with a watch that allows him to change into 12 different alien heroes, was the same boy turned into a genetic experiment and going on a sugar rush. Everyone found that out when they spent the next 30 minutes trying to get Ben to calm down.

There's the final chapter. You can be certain that you will be seeing EXP Ben and Kevin 11 in future AOE Saga stories. Thanks everyone for your great reviews. Keep an eye out for more of my stories. Please review.