Alright, now we will get to the Ben 10-centric episode of Infinity Legion. I'll throw in a few references to past season episodes, just for the nostalgia of it all, that and I need a lot of reminders that classic Ben 10 is a million times better than that reboot, though I can't say Gax wasn't a good thing, I just wished they did it in the classic series. I'm also on the fence about having Ben get new aliens along the way, but not like OC alien species, more like past species we've seen before but never got to see in the show, like a Revonnahgander for example. Heck, I'll even throw in Gax while I'm at it. But I feel more partial to the aliens from the past series, I wanna know what you all would think is best because I think it's a tough decision.

On another note, the prequels I mentioned will come after season 1's done, so be prepared for when that happens and stay tuned as well, for the next "movie" of the Infinity Legion, I won't say what it's called or what the plot will be, that would just be spoiling the fun and we wouldn't want that now would we? Heck, I got a lot of ideas on "movies" for the team, each different, and each with its own unique plotline that I hope you guys would absolutely love.

Also, expect some changes to the ones made in Omniverse series.

Plus, I'd like to point out that if all these changes I'm making seem sloppy, it's just I can't say I know how to make an original storyline and this is the first major project I ever had, and I wasn't prepared to realize how much I need to do like plan more carefully and pace myself, so I intend to do just that, because I feel I can make improvements.

Don't forget to Fave, Follow, and leave your Reviews.

Enjoy!

As for the SVTFOE finale...I'll address my take on that when we get to the Star episode but let me tell you, I'm happy for Starco but they could've done it better.

Magic never dies.

Bellwood

Undertown

The underground settlement called Undertown hasn't quite been the same ever since the Incursion Invasion. In the beginning, it was meant to be a safe haven for aliens after what known to be called the Purge, a time when the fanatical group known as the Forever Knights started a hunt for any and all alien life found on the planet Earth, as they saw themselves as Earth's righteous protectors towards anything unearthly, which included those from across the galaxy. Aliens of all kinds could interact with each other without fear of being ridiculed, nor can they hide by wearing ID masks while also pursue their own private businesses. However, ever since Ben Tennyson and allies ended the Incursion invasion of Earth, humans and aliens have begun a slow process of reaching an understand with each other and trying to build a healthy relationship. Of course, some were concerned with the now known fact that there is an underground activity of aliens that's happening right under their noses this whole time, up to who knows what. It was decided that there needed to be a way for humans to see life on the other side of things.

As a result, the mayor of Bellwood established daily tours so that citizens and out of towners could see that not all aliens were necessarily as evil as the incursions and other extraterrestrial criminals that have stirred up trouble. "And on your left, you can see a two for one sale on Tetramand engine blocks, said to be the best in the galaxy." the tour guide pointed to a vendor run by a member Four Arms' species.

"Ooh..." the tourist group took several shots of the place of business, same with every other stop the tour made to showcase how similar it is for other species trying to make ends meet.

"Now, everyone. It's been said that Undertown is frequently visited by none other than Ben Tennyson." the guide told them, which prompted excited chatter amongst themselves, as they were all avid fans of the universe-famous teen hero and his exploits. "Now, I'm not saying we might run into him today, but from what I hear, this is an eventful place, so who knows what'll happ-AH!" the guide had to blind her eyes from a strong gust of wind blew against her waist.

"Look! It's him!" a female tourist shouted in excitement.

Up ahead of them, a blue and black blur was running at top speed, in clear view, it was revealed to be Fasttrack who was in pursuit on the daily bad guy of the day, as per norm. He could've waited for his partner and Plumber reinforcements to arrive, but he couldn't resist getting into action, he had just finished his fourth smoothie and was getting bored fast. So in his own sense of logic, he thought going Fasttrack to track down the bad guy was the right course of action.

"Ben, do you copy?"

"Oh. Hey, Rook." he replied to the Revonnaghander's call. "Look, can't talk right now, man. Just spotted a baddie and well, since no was around, I figured I might as well do my hero time thing."

"And once again, it did not occur to you to wait patiently for myself or perhaps some Plumber reinforcements would be beneficial to your current endeavor?"

It may seem mean, but he just had to roll his eyes at Blonko's criticism, at this point, he should be used to it by now, Gwen, Kevin, and his other past partners have. "Dude, come on. That would be natural if I'm fighting Vilgax, or Maltruant, or Z'skayr, but trust me, it won't take much to take these jokers down." he confidently told his partner. "Heck, I bet you some chili fries that I'll have them ready for transport by the time you get here."

"That actually implies that I enjoy your disturbing eating habits. Would it not make more sense to have a more edible sustenance such as one of Magister Tennyson's Zandurian Goulash or perhaps your mother's homemade casserole."

Dear lord, did Ben ever have to resist the urge to lose his lunch while running at top speed, because he knows all too well how anything made by his mom and grandpa is something that would just kill a normal man's taste buds. "Let's stick with the chili fries. Okay, partner?" he then saw something retreating into past the entrance to Undertown and into the subway. "Gonna have to keep you hanging, I think I got him." Cutting the connection off, Fasttrack ran until he was straight through the subway, where all appeared to be empty. But he wasn't a complete doofus, despite what most would often say about him, he's played this game before. Bad guys assume that they're so sneaky, they think that he couldn't tell where they were, and while he couldn't see them, doesn't mean they're not there.

Fasstrack turned back into Ben and spoke at all directions. "Is this how you wanna play it?" he asked, and still went on despite not receiving any answer to his query. "Come on, you wanna be remembered, right? The one who managed to beat Ben Tennyson one-on-one, not sure people would respect the fact that you had to hide to do it." he taunted, trying to bait him so that he could come out into the open. Just then, an abandoned train track was suddenly thrown at him and it narrowly missed him. The perpetrator was revealed to be a red-eyed humanoid elephant alien that was strong in physique wearing black briefs and purple suspenders, his mouth was located at the end of his trunk. "Trumbipulor, isn't this like the 4th time this week? Hard to keep track of all the times I have to haul you in."

"Funny, Tennyson." Trumbipulor sneered. "You can thank Chadzmuth for defending me again, that guy can work miracles. But here's the thing, I finally have a way to defeat you once and for all!" he boldly declared, there was not a doubt in his mind that this was the hour that Ben 10 would finally get what's coming to him for all his past defeats.

"And what would that be? More peanuts to make you grow?" Ben wisecracked. Even he was thinking of recycling that old plot, he would just have to go Way Big and the result would be the same.

"Think again!"

Reacting fast, Ben ducked down to avoid getting hit by a swinging energy flail, which was wielded by a warthog-like alien wearing a purple leotard and a belt with the silhouette of a warthog on it. "Thunderpig?!" Ben exclaimed, genuinely surprised to see him.

"Yes, it is I, Thunderpig!" the warrior announced, spinning the mace of his weapon. "Ben Tennyson, you have escaped from the cool hoof of vengeance for too long! Today is the day that I finally find justice for my father, of whom you mercilessly devoured.

Groaning in exasperation, Ben facepalmed. "For the last time, I didn't eat your old man! Where did you even hear that anyway?"

"Stow your lies, worm! Together, with my new allies, we shall make you pay for all that you've done to us, and as a bonus, imagine the payment we will receive once we present the Omnitrix after tearing it off your very skin, it shall be a day to celebrate and rejoice, and perhaps my father's spirit would rest in peace!"

Every word that came out of his mouth made Ben cringe. 'Seriously, it feels like I'm in an 80's cartoon every time I have to deal with this clown.' he then picked up on what he just said. "Wait, allies? As in plural?"

An electric bolt was shot straight at him that made him run for cover, then got nearly hit by acid that nearly splashed all over him and watches as a female figure flipped next to him and slashed what looked like clawed nails at him but he got down and slid under her. "Thank you, Ashi, Kim, and Jack." he silently whispered, grateful that his teammates had taught some ways to evade oncoming attacks and strikes from their enemies. Speaking of, joining the part was a snake man that was as tall as a human with arms that were as boneless as two snakes. Then there was female alien that resembled one of his aliens, albeit a girl version. Finally, the final member of this group was a young woman dressed in a cat-like outfit surrounded, hissing dangerously at the teen hero with malice.

"Yetta? Ssserpent? Nyancy Chan?"

"Behold, Tennyson!" Thunderpig spreads his arms out as the five of them assembled together. "I have found like-minded individuals who wish to have vengeance upon you, we 5 of your greatest foes shall make you beg for your life!" he declared, thinking that a combined effort was enough to take Ben 10 down.

"Actually, I just answered the ad on the Extranet because you seemed desperate and I didn't want to disappoint you." Yetta informed.

"Silence!" clearing his throat, Thunderpig continued his rant once more. "Now, Ben Tennyson, do you feel yourself quaking in your shoes at the prospect of facing your deadliest foes? For there is no transformation in your Omnitrix that can stand up to the might of us, Payback!"

Ben stood silently as he stared at the group dubbed "Payback", all of these guys were nothing more but common crooks by Plumber standards and they believe themselves to be his toughest opponents. There were times where he had to sacrifice the old Omnitrix, use it to fix the genetic problem of an entire species, and actually give it to Vilgax for the greater good, but right now, he could only do one thing. "Pfft-hahahahahahahahah!" he cackled, barely able to hold it in. "I-I'm sorry, but you guys actually believe you're my toughest enemies? And Payback, that's like your team name? Look, this isn't first time I've had to deal with my enemies teaming up to fight me, there was the Negative 10, and then the Revengers, and you know what? My friends and I took them all down and they were way better than you, even Billy's team."

"Yes, but those groups didn't have us!" Trumbipulor.

"Are you serious? You guys are nothing more but two-bit crooks, none of you were a possibly psychotic sorceress, hi-tech bounty hunter, or leader of a faction of knights. Heck, you may not know this, but I have a new team, just formed not too long ago and there are like way more of us than you guys and we definitely have a better name."

"Oh yeah? Then call them here and prove it." the pig warrior challenged.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Maybe if it's Vilgax teaming up with Maltruant and Aggregor, but since it's only you guys, it'll just be overdoing it. Heck, I can take you guys down in no time flat, in fact..." activating the Omnitrix, he transformed into the werewolf alien, Blitzwolfer who let out a sonic howl that pushed them away.

"Agh! Chan, call out your pets!" Thunderpig ordered the cat lover.

"They're not pets, they're my friends." she corrected.

"Just do it!"

Putting two fingers in her mouth, Nyancy Chan let out a whistle that attracted some guests she brought along, they were two Bengali Tigers that surrounded Blitzwolfer. "Ha! See now, Tennyson? We have many tricks up our sleeves, and we won't hesitate to attempt any means in using them to bring and end to-" an orange cable was shot forward that tied the two predators together, and they couldn't break free from it, no matter how hard they tried. "What?!

"Hope this isn't an exclusive party." Zak Saturday swung in, landing next to Ben."

"Zak, what are you doing here?"

Extending the Claw into a staff, the scientist took a battle stance. "Well, after making short work of some polluters that were infecting a school of Laus, I figured I could make a quick stop which was fast thanks to this baby." he pointed to his dimensional transport device. "I even called Rook and said that you were in trouble, thought I could help out."

"Well, I appreciate it, but trust me, I can handle these guys on my own."

"Ooh, then you might be a little disappointed, Ben."

Curious, he raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

His answer came in the form of a portal that opened up, startling the bad guys, and out came other Infinity Legion members such as Danny Phantom, Kim Possible, Max Steel, El Tigre, and Cat Noir. "Heard there was an emergency, Ben." Max said, then looked to the group of five criminals. "At least, we were told it was an emergency."

Blitzwolfer looked to his friend. "You called in the others? Why?"

"Just in case, you know? I mean, you do see that it would've been five to one, right?"

"Yeah, but these guys aren't even that big of a threat, I would've definitely-NGH!" he soon found himself trapped in one of Ssserpent's snake arms and it threatened to bite him, but Ron grabbed the snake man by his arm and shoulders.

"Hands off, lizard brain." using his Mystic Monkey strength, he managed to make him let go of the Loboan and punched straight in the gut, then dropped kicked him hard. Just as the blonde was ready to bring the foot down, Ssserpent slithered off and used his tail to strike Ron across the face, he did it again but this time, the monkey master grabbed it and started thrashing him around before throwing him up in the air and tackled the snake monster into the ground.

Cat Noir and El Tigre decided to double team on Nyancy Chan. "Well, aren't you two a couple of cute little kitties~." she cooed. "Won't you go easy on little old me?"

"Sorry, I dig your style, but you're not really my type." Cat Noir smirked. "Yo, little cat, let's try that move we came up with in the training room." he suggested.

"All right!" El Tigre cheered. "All over it, big cat!"

It began with the young Rivera boy shooting his chain claws out, but intentionally missed Nyancy Chan as his intended target was Cat Noir's staff which he used to pull El Tigre over and deliver a kick to her face that made her fall to the floor. After landing next to the older cat, El Tigre then swung his chain claws that were still attached to the staff, but Cat Noir used this as chance to be flung over once she started getting back up to separate his staff into batons to wrap his them around her head then flip her over. "Nice, Manny." both cats shared a hi-five.

Kim had her power suit on to face down against Yetta. "Terribly sorry in advance for this, dear. But if I don't fight you, I'd have answered that ad for nothing." she quickly apologized. The female Gimlinopithecus shot blots of lightning at the cheerleader who amazingly dodged each blast, but when one bolt did manage to hit her but the suit absorbed it and charged up the suit. Grinning, Kim moved at enhanced speeds and proceeded to swiftly deliver kicks and punches that Yetta had no time in trying to deflect. "Wade was right, this upgrade does come in handy." Reaching into a pouch, Kim opened up some lip gloss that had some very nasty gas inside that made Yetta faint once she breathed it in. "Randy's stink bombs got nothing on this."

His trunk letting out a mighty roar, Trumbipulor charged at Max Steel. "Go Turbo! Strenght!" meeting the charge head on, Max's strength form allowed him to be on par with the alien. "Heh, and elephant alien, gotta admit that's a new one." he pushed the crook until he was back against the wall and Max Steel pulled his fist back to punch him in the face, but the trunk wrapped around it and a gust of wind was blown out of it that distracted Max. Trumbipulor punched a rib, making Max stand back and began landing some solid hits. Zak assited him by slashing the Claw in the chest, making the elephant cry out in pain, Zak did many jabs and strikes with the Claw, distracting him from one who had enough power to take him down.

"Steel, Max, take him."

"Max, how about we step it up? Go Turbo! Mimic! Strength!" going into his own variation of strength mode, Steel helped his best friend double team on him, hitting back and forth.

"Go Turbo! Spike!" Both swinging their spiked whips to attack him multiple times that incapacitated the elephant criminal, falling down without any more trouble for them. "Next time, let's use mice."

Danny and Blitzwolfer teamed up against Thunderpig who swung his fail at them, not deterred by this new development. "Call on as many allies as you can, Tennyson! For nothing shall stand in my way of vengeance for my father!"

"What's bacon breath talking about?" the halfa asked.

"Don't ask."

"Thunder, thunder, Thunderpig!" his flail charged with red energy and swung it to Danny who went intangible to let it pass through him. Becoming solid again, Danny Phantom blasted a powerful ghost ray that sent Thunderpig flying, the half then sent out a duplicate of himself to then backhand him with an ecto-charged hand. Blitzwolfer ran on all fours at him, but Thunderpig got back up and swung back his flail so that the mace could hit Blitzwolfer from behind then used it to trap his legs and threw him across the subway into a wall. "At last, justice for my father!" he charged at Blitzwolfer, but it turns out he was just playing possum as he grabbed the mace with his fangs and yanked it away. Danny and his duplicate appeared and three more appeared and blasted a combined ice beam that froze him solid. Blitzwolfer went ahead and unleashed a sonic howl that broke him out and smashed him into an abandoned train, dropping his weapon. "V-Vengeance...is...m-mine..." Thunderpig shivered and collapsed.

Danny and Beowulf stood over Thunderpig's downed form as the Omnitrix timed out. "But seriously, what was that about his father?"

Much to Ben's fortune, the Proto-TRUK arrived along with a few Plumber transports and Rook Blonko exited from his newly repaired personal vehicle, same with the squad of Plumbers. "Ah, I see what you meant by calling your own backup, Zak." the eldest Blonko child mused as he observed the defeated criminals thanks to the Legion. "I assume you all are members of the team Ben has joined, Infinity Legion, if I remember. Allow me introduce myself, I am Rook Blonko of the Plumbers, as well as Ben's partner." he held up his Plumbers' Badge.

"Danny Phantom. Team leader." Danny returned the greeting, and since he didn't have official identification, he instead shook his hand. "Sorry if we were interfering with your own thing."

"It is quite alright." Rook assured. "Truthfully, a whole group working together was the most tactical move to apprehend these band of felons, it was fortunate that Ben agreed to approve of your assistance."

Said hero raised his hand. "Um, excuse me. I'd like to go on the record and say that I did not call for their help. That was all him." he pointed over to Zak who looked confused as to why that was a bad thing. "Why'd you guys even decide to show up?"

"Uh, because we're a team and we fight together?" Max simply answered. "Pretty sure that's obvious, Ben."

"Would you guys judge me if I said I only came because I thought it'd be fun." El Tigre questioned, then hot a stern look from Kim. "Right, got it. I'll just shut up now."

"And I appreciate it, Max. But I've fought these guys like a bunch of times and they don't really count as like an actual emergency like the Darkentors were or that whole business with Chang."

"Ben, no matter how big or small the sitch, it doesn't mean we shouldn't lend some help." Kim told him.

Ron agreed with his girlfriend's sentiment. "Yeah, man, we're friends aren't we?"

Cat Noir was equally confused about Ben's attitude but he managed to piece it together and let out an amused chuckle. "Don't you guys see? Tennyson's afraid of sharing the glory."

"What? That's just crazy." Ben denied with a not-so subtle laugh of his own.

"No, I get it. From what you like telling us so far, you just love hogging all the action of taking down villains." the Parisian looked to the Revonnaghander for confirmation since he has experience in working closely with Ben. "Or am I wrong on that?"

The honest Plumber shook his head. "Not at all. In fact, your observation is amazingly accurate."

"Way to have my back, partner." Ben rolled his eyes, voice full of sarcasm. Honestly, he doesn't know where Cat Noir gets off thinking like that, even if it's semi-true, doesn't mean he should just voice it out for all to hear. Sure, it's fun to do a little teaming up now and then, but he often finds more excitement and thrill when he's all on his own, gives him a chance to show people why he's so well known across the universe as its greatest hero and more importantly, it can maybe get his message across to Harangue and those stupid enough to listen to him. Before the issue could be further addressed, tourists suddenly arrived on the scene, having wanted to follow Ben 10 and took photos of him and the others, a few of them happened to be reporters. "Look at that, right on time. Nothing to see here folks, just cleaning up the trash."

"Ben, which aliens did you use?"

"Did they give you trouble?"

"Who are those other guys with you?"

"Oh, nothing much happened here. Just showing these guys what happens when you mess with us, the Infinity Legion." he slung his arms over Kim and Ron's shoulders, whispering to both of them. "Just go with it." while he would normally love all the attention from the press, he mostly only did this to escape from the question.

Despite fighting alien criminals, none were able to notice that they had an unknown audience, way before the Plumbers or the tour guide eventually arrived, it had observed the Legion's fight with the crooks and while there were only a few of them, from what Ben told, it would seem that there are more of them than one would initially imagine. Deactivating its cloaking technology, the unknown party was revealed to be the Forever Ninja, an android assassin designed by the Forever Knights, and one of the only known remnants of said organization, which included only a handful of knights that survived the war with Esoterica, and it just recorded the whole fight. Admittedly, Benjamin Kirby Tennyson has gathered himself impressive allies, and they each carry a unique skill set that makes them a formidable unit of individuals, perhaps even more so than the other lot that Tennyson previously allied with as a group, this would present a problem to the master's plans.

But no worries, the master knows how to make short work of hindrances to his plans.

(Intro ensues.)

Infinity Legion Tower

Training Room

When Solomon issued the construction of the Infinity Legion's headquarters, he included the training room as a way for the team to keep themselves in peak physical condition for future missions and threats, providing them any kind of environment imaginable for them to hone their skills and keep up with each other. Its computers were programmed to emit life-like solid holographic projections to give the team something to fight, with the threat levels being separated to see which one better suited each individual member of the legion. So far, it has been used exactly for its intended purpose, without anyone using it for something else.

Until now.

"Guys….I'm still on the fence about this."

Marco looked down from atop a steep hill nervously, wondering how and why he would ever agree to a stupid crazy stunt like this in the first space but then he remembered that Star was included and knew that she roped him into it, like always. Only this time, it included Ben, Rex, Zack, Max, Steel, Jake, Randy, Jenny, Ron, Penn, Boone, Manny, Jenny, and Sashi. "Yeah, I'm kind of with Marco on this, should we really be using the training room for this?" Zak asked.

"Zak, Marco, we maybe superheroes but we're also teenagers who deserve a little fun once in a while." Ben told them, smiling down to the bottom of the hilltop with satisfaction a she suggested this and convinced other teammates to assist. "Rex, good buddy, how's the sled Star made for us looking?" he aksed the EVO teen.

"Big enough to fit all you, man." Rex replied, opting to use his own means of sliding down, as for the others they would be riding on a spacious sledding object conjured up by Star which was purple with violet stripes and a nice little bow on top, fit with a steering mechanism for the wheels along with rocket-like contraptions on the back with heart marks all over it. "By the way, nice work on it, Star. With that wand, you could make me a bigger room."

"Thanks, Rex! Ooooh, I can't wait, can we start now? Please?" Star pleaded, bouncing up and down, all ready to get started. The one thing she loved about her new friends, were the super fun ideas they had, especially the one started by Ben.

"You know you lame-brains will get busted for this." Sashi said matter-of-factly while leaning on the tree with her arms crossed, along with a deadpan expression on her face. "Someone's gonna notice the training room being activated and once they see that it's being used for idiot reasons, they're definitely gonna come and bust you. I'm betting Lance will be first on the scene."

"Penn, your girlfriend's being a buzzkill." Rex said to the Zero boy with an eye roll.

"But Sashi's right." Marco pointed out. "This is a training room, we can do this when it's snowing or make it snow here, why do we need it with this kind of setting?" he gestured to the present environment, showing how it wasn't exactly the kind of place you'd expect a bunch of kids to sled down, but these guys weren't your average bunch of kids/

"That'd be too obvious." Ben dismissed with a wave. "And in a away this is training. Earlier, I went XLR8 and hid out lots of flags across the area, the goal is to find enough to win, while also dodging the traps I had the computer made."

Max raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "That seems more like a game than training."

"Thinking of chickening out, Max?" Rex asked,

"Pfft, heck no, Rex." Steel spoke for him and for himself as well. "Let Lance and the others come, won't stop us."

"Sure you don't wanna come with, Sash?" Penn asked his girl.

"Positive, but even so." she gave him a peck on the cheek. "Have fun, I'll just stick with Boone and watch from here while he's keeping score from the scope since he was too lazy to even join."

"I just thought you could use some company." Boone tried to explain but was unconvincing.

"Okay, people, let's get started." Ben announced, signaling the start of their little game, he scrolled through his many options in the Ominitrix and settled for one of his fastest flyers, Jetray. The Rex Ride grew from Rex's legs and he put his goggles over his eyes, Max revved up the Turbo Cycle and Steel connected to it to get ready, Jake quickly went into his dragon form, and Jenny's feet turned into wheels with spikes on them along with boosters forming on the calves. Everyone else mounted onto the customized vehicle made by the Mewman princess with Ron being the driver and everyone else going in the back with Boone counting down for their race to begin.

"Ready...get set...…."

They waited for his go-ahead, until he took a brief moment of pause. "Boone!" they all shouted, telling him to get on with it already.

"I'm just savoring the moment." a punch to the shoulder from Sashi was enough to make him get serious. "3. 2. 1. Go!"

And there they go!

Jetray was taking lead ahead of the others, flying low but at fast speeds with Rex and Max Steel in tow, the Turbo powered hero of Copper Canyon charged his ride up with enough turbo energy to move past the Aerophibian. "Whoo! Eat our dust, Ben!" the Ultralink boasted as he and his bonded counterpart took the lead. But out of the blue, Rex flung over them and using his goggles, zoomed in on what was most definitely a flag, he wasted no time in grabbing it before anyone else, and waved it around for everyone else to see.

"Score numero uno for yours truly!" he celebrated. "Come on, guys, try to make it more challenging!" he rode off, still I the lead and still on the hunt for more flags.

"Come on, we're falling behind!" the Ninja shouted from his spot on the vehicle.

"Better kick it into overdrive!" Ron pressed a button that caused the rockets to increase the speed and the magic-ally created vehicle, being able to be nearly on par with the rest, where it was more easy to spot any flags. As luck would have it, one was placed dangerously close, Randy used his scarf to latch onto it and pulled it over to grab it.

"See that? That's how it's done!" the 9th grader yelled victoriously.

Jenny flew past him swiftly, her eyes had a built in targeting system that could pinpoint any object from afar and with it, the next flag should be nearby and there it was, however, Jake and Jetray had caught up and were aiming for the same flag, the dragon tried swiping the Omnitrix wielder away with his tail, but he narrowly missed it. Spotting a tree, Jetray blasted it with neuro-shock laser blasts from his eyes and tail to make it go timber and block Jake's path so he could go up ahead. But Jake had the same idea once he shot upwards and breathed a wall of fire in front of Jetray and the robot girl, but she managed to douse the fire with a water rifle, and nothing was standing in her way from obtaining the flag for herself. "Snooze, you lose, boys!"

"Hang on, guys. I got a plan." Ron told everyone. "Penn, take the wheel and hold Rufus for me."

"Uh, sure, Ron."

The mystic monkey master got off and with his aura glowing, lifted the vehicle up and leapt up in the air, causing the passengers to scream out of both fear and of excitement once they landed right near Max and Rex after Marco thought quickly and opened a portal and Star cushioned the landing by conjuring a pad made out of jelly. "Whoo, let's do that again!" Star cheered along with Manny, despite the high adrenaline going through their systems which was alright with them.

"Oh boy, something's coming up!" Marco held his stomach and blocked his mouth, he couldn't resist losing his lunch when he hunched over the side, the contents of his stomach nearly hit Max and his bike.

"Hey, watch it, Marco, it's hard to wash that junk off this baby!"

"Yo, Manny. Think you could hook us up with some flags?" Penn asked, while shooting down more tress to block the others' path.

"I'll do you one better, Penn." El Tigre jumped out and landed on Rex where he shielded his eyes, making him lose control a bit, the young Rivera boy shot out a claw that clung to a nearby tree and spun around to fling them across until a flag was seen and another claw chain was shot to grab it and returned to the kid. He jumped across and landed on the Turbo Cycle, just behind Max and saw as he tried to go for a close by flag, but he grabbed it with a chain, surprising the duo.

"Manny?" Max and Steel found themselves perplexed, having just realized that he was on his ride.

El Tigre gave him a mocking two finger salute before jumping back into the vehicle. "Later, Max, later, Steel."

"That has got to be against the rules. Ben?" Steel turned to Jetray who merely shrugged in response.

"Not bad." Zak admitted, using his claw to latch onto the flag and reeled it back.

"Heads up!" Penn pointed. "We're heading to the mountain area!"

All legion members entered into the part of the course which was mountainous with various stone paths, with jagged roads and unstable patterns that made going through it nigh impossible, but not for them. The terrain was rough, but those travelling on road were able to persevere and after a while, they managed to rack up quite a number of flags, with only one being left standing, ripe for the taking. Since Jetray was the orchestrator behind this entire game of theirs, he thought he would have an advantage over the others due to being the one that hid all the flags in the first place, but he underestimated their tenacity, something he respects greatly.

But that didn't mean he was gonna throw this game.

And there it was, the last flag and he was coming up on it, just a little bit closer and someone will...

"End simulation."

...win?

By voice command, the entire scenario was aborted, the area around them turned holographic and faded away back into it's standard setting making the participants stop. "Hey, what gives? I was just about to score a win." Rex complained, dismounting the Rex Ride. Everyone discarded their vehicles and reverted to their more regular appearances once the race was over. A clearing of a throat was then heard and every turned to see Danny, Kim, Jack, Ashi, Cat Noir, Ladybug, Octus, Ilana, and Lance who have just entered, the corporal looking displeased. "Oh, joy." the EVO rolled his eyes.

"You two said you'd be on lookout." Ben reprimanded the Parisian heroes.

"Hey, you try you saying no to Ashi when she's giving the look." Adrien defended.

"Or Kim when she pulls that puppy dog pout, which is just unfair." Marinette added.

Lance looked to Ben with a stern gaze and the same old glower on his face whenever he finds things to be frustrated of, which was not hard. "Care to explain what you were doing?"

Folding his arms, Ben shrugged his shoulders. "What else? Training, it's what this room for."

"Your definition of training differs from it's usual meaning, Ben." Octus noted.

"Sashi." Lance turned to her for the truth.

"They thought they could get away with using the training room for some stupid game of capture the flag." she told him.

"Oh come on, Sashi." Rex glared at her, but she paid him no mind.

"Fine, so we played around a little." Ben admitted with a sour look. "What's the problem with that?"

"Wasting your time with fun and games can be acceptable outside the tower, but this is room is only used for training. Or did you forget that?" Lance sardonically asked. "Solomon and others didn't invest so much of their resources and time in giving us this just so you could use it for your own gain, it was designed for us to hone our skills for better efficiency on missions. Not for your entertainment, Tennyson or any of yours for that matter."

Danny got in between them to prevent some in fighting within his own team. "It's not that we're saying you shouldn't have done this, more that you could've at least asked first, we could've all decided together as a group. Well, almost all of us."

"Although, this actually looks a little fun." Ilana admitted making Lance give her a look. "What? It does, maybe with the whole team as participants, we could better coordinate ourselves if we're engaging in a chase."

Jack tapped his chin. "Hmm, perhaps some sparring would also be beneficial, a little competition can be good." though he didn't notice it, but Randy let out a sigh of relief.

His wife rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Um, maybe leave me out of it."

"Whatever." Ben rolled his eyes, walking past until Lance grabbed his shoulder to stop him from leaving.

"Hold on, we're not done here."

Annoyed, Ben took Lance's hand off and shoved it back. "Well, I am, so later." he promptly left along with a few others once business was done here, leaving Lance to continue scowling until Boone walked up to him.

He shook his head while going tsk, tsk, tsk with his finger. "Some people, am I right?" he missed the look of annoyance Lance was sending his way.

Due to Lance spoiling their fun and their game ending prematurely, Ben decided to get some time off in his room that was part of the tower, each of them personally customized their dwellings, taking cues from their own rooms in each of their hometowns to make it feel more like home. For the Omnitrix bearer, he included some of what he considers to be the essentials, such as pre-bought Mr. Smoothies and boxes of chili fries, that and some Sumo Slammers merchandise and of course, the video games. But instead of games and fries, Ben settled for chatting with some old friends through interdimensional skyping, gotta love advanced technology.

"And the dude just kept on shouting on how he'll get revenge on me for eating his dad." he said to a screen which showed Gwen Tennyson and Kevin Levin, who were contacting through his cousin's dorm in college.

"Why does he think you, specifically, ate his old man?" his Osmosian best friend asked.

Ben threw his arms out. "I have no idea! You'd think I would remember eating roasted alien bacon, but everyone knows I'm more of a chili fries guy, still can't believe he put out a want-ad on the extranet for his own group of revenge on me seekers, that has to be like the third time a bunch of guys who hate me teamed up."

"Can you really blame them?" Gwendolyn chuckled. "If there's anything you're good at is making a lot of people hate you."

"Wouldn't say that many people hate me." Ben mumbled.

"Mr. Bauman."

He attempted to rebuff that little comment, but he promptly closed his mouth and conceded. "Okay, I'll give you that one. But at least he doesn't try to kill me, at least I hope not. You know, I couldn't help but notice that Lucky Girl hasn't been that active lately, what's that all about, cuz?"

"When you have to finish term papers until the end of the semester, hero work will have to take a backseat. Honestly though, I get more time to make up some missed work, and Lucky Girl is more of a part-time job for me."

Ben raised a brow at that. "That right? You know, Ron and Kim are college students and they still find the time to save the world."

Kevin rolled his eyes with a laugh. "There he goes again, rubbing his new team at our faces. We get it, you got yourself a new group of powered teenagers to replace us and Rook that stopped an alien invasion, we get the memo."

"Ah come on Kev, no one would ever replace you guys." Ben said in earnest. "Also, Jack and Ashi are adults, but yeah, the legion is pretty cool. Of course, some could learn to take it easy a little, but I can't say they don't kick butt, all in all, this whole team thing might just work out in the long run."

"So long as you say its."

That made him stop slurping. "What do you mean?"

Gwen thought very carefully on how to phrase her next words so that he wouldn't be offended. "Look, Ben. I'm happy that you're part of a team again, heck, I'm proud you didn't let your ego get the better of you and think you should be calling the shots but you mostly like to play by your own rules. When the three of us decided to work together to stop the Highbreed invasion, we worked completely in synch. But after stopping the invasion and your secret got out to the public, you tend to focus more on getting most of the action, you barely listen to what Rook has to say."

"W-What? That's crazy." laughed Ben, trying to dismiss it. "Let me tell you right now, I'm down for whatever Danny wants me to do, and I don't get in fights with the others."

"Maybe, but what if there's an emergency that you feel that only you can handle and that the others can take a back seat?" Kevin suggested. "Not trying to be harsh, but not every problem can be solved by you, bro. Who knows? Maybe they'll handle it way better than you would."

"That's supposed to be you not being harsh?"

"Just calling it as it is, man."

Looking back, Kevin actually had a point, something he'd never admit to his face. During the Highbreed and DNAlien crisis on Earth, Ben did indeed learn that he needed a team to have his back, just like how Gwen and their grandpa did for him when he first started out 6 years ago, when he found the prototype Omnitrix and his life changed forever. Of course, back in those days, he was mostly quick to credit all his victories to him and him alone, it took him a long while until he realized that a team can be capable of so much more. But when the Highbreed called off their invasion of the whole universe, he started going back to that old mindset even more so when his secret was revealed, when he was 10, he dreamt of people celebrating his name and now that it was true, he can't help but bask in it.

"How are things with Kai?"

"Huh?" Ben asked, snapping out of his musings.

"You said before that you and her were giving each other a chance. Is it going good?"

Noticeably flinching at the mention of one of many girls he was attracted to, though she pretty much shot him down when they were younger, they tried giving it a go as teens and for a while, things were okay until both started to realize a few things. "Heh, yeah. Funny story about that." he scratched his head, a weak laugh escaping his mouth.

"Oh boy, she dumped you, didn't she?"

"She didn't dump me, and I didn't dump her." he declared, crossing his arms and looking away with a blush. "We went out on a few dates, kept up a long distance relationship, but I don't know, just didn't seem right. Don't get me wrong, we both care about each other but truth be told, we were never really sold on the whole us being together just because a masked kid from the future says we're meant for each other. I mean, I've met three Ben 10,000s, so why bother? If anything, it was a mutual kind of break up."

"Going back out there, huh? Pretty bold move."

"You think Ester might have broken up with Bruno?"

Ben shrugged. "Not sure, hadn't talked with her ever since that whole game show mess. Although, I think I'll stay out of the dating scene for a while, this kind of life mixed with relationships makes things a little messy, take Elena for example."

"True enough. Anyway, I have to attend a lecture pretty soon and Kevin needs to get back to work."

"Catch ya later, man."

He waved as they cut the connection off and now he suddenly lost his appetite and his thirst. If there's one thing the universe-wide famous hero had trouble with, it was girls, you got Kai, Eunice, Attea, Looma, a part of him wonders if he'll ever have a relationship that won't be complicated due to his superhero status. Far as he could tell, the only successful relationship he's ever head was with...Julie, he pulled out his phone and gazed at the home screen depicting them together. Even when she discovered his secret, she didn't reject him or became scared, she was practically in awe of that, looking back on what they had made him wonder where things went wrong with her. There was him not having time for her due to everyone knowing his secret, letting fame go to his head and that stupid misunderstanding with the phone call.

Ben's willing to admit that he's done a lot of stupid things over the years, but letting Julie go was by far the stupidest.

Man, he desperately needed something to take his mind off all this, he looked to his dimensional transport device and thought maybe he could use some relaxing time with some extra company. "Yo, Rex." he called through his phone. "Get everyone together, I got an idea."

Bellwood

Good thing about alien technology, it makes the most difficult of tasks so much more easier such as cloaking a big rig as some soda truck to make it look like a standard delivery run. The cloaking tech that was bought is said to be top of line and the engine block was Tetramand made so the whole thing would be able to take a lot of hits from missiles or energy blasts as an insurance policy if Red Spots or Tennyson get involved. As for the driver, everyone the truck passed by saw him as an ordinary delivery man, but in truth, he was the Forever Ninja who took a right turn to a an old abandoned warehouse. Exiting from the truck, the disguised robotic warrior walked into the hideout where his masters were waiting.

He went to the back of the truck and opened it up, and waited until the rest of the "crew" came and helped them unload it which was concealed by a large tarp to keep it out of prying eyes. Inside, it looked like your standard workplace environment. There were the usual workers, but when the new arrivals came in, it was the time to throw away their disguises.

One worker deactivated the cloaking field that enveloped the entire complex and the workers revealed themselves wearing unique suits of armor, they resembled knights of old with a little modern qualities such as a more sleeker design and their defining feature was the infinity symbol they each bore to signify the faction of which they belong to.

The Forever Knights.

Not only did the workers reveal their true selves but so id the interior, what was initially a simple workshop was now one with advanced technology that was not of Earth, but of the more extraterrestrial variety. The Forever Ninja walked up to a monitor and typed the code to make the call to the knight's newest benefactor. All the knights allowed a beat of silence to fill the air as the screen started out as distorted static before clearing and showing a black silhouette inside a dim-lighted room.

"Are the new gears intact?" the voice spoke in a synthesized setting, speaking directly at the Forever Ninja who nodded obediently in response. "Excellent, did I not promise you results, your highness?"

"I admit, this does exceed previous expectations." a sophisticated voice said, the knights stood in attention at the presence of Joseph Chadwick, a sledner man clad in golden Forever Knight armor with a red and white cape traveling down his back fit with a crown, he was the current mantle holder of the Knights' king who had regained his more human form.

Behind him were the remnants of knights that served under him, Sir Morton and the twin knights, Comedy and Tragedy. "What, still not impressed?" Morton asked the king. "Back in the old days, Connor would take what he can get."

"You should heed his words, forever king. After all I have done and provided for you, not only gaining more numbers to your cause, outfitting you with alien technology, but also synthesizing a special concoction that helped with your...condition, have I not earned your trust?"

"Don't misunderstand, your contributions to renewing our sacred order are not ignored. However, you've yet to disclose your identity, even now you insist on meeting without showing your face." Chadwick pointed out, a hint of suspicion in his tone.

"Point taken. However, my current predicament is a rather complicated issue and should I risk revealing myself, then it would just cause even more complications as I'm sure you remember. Speaking from experience, if it is desired for a plan to succeed without so much as even the minor hiccup, then there should be no room for errors caused by complications. I realize that I am asking much from you and your cohorts, but rest assured, your goals are aligned with my own."

King Chadwick was a scientist before becoming the self-appointed leader of what was left of a once sacred order that he swore body and mind to, and with hos brilliant mind, he could see when there is an agenda that differs his own. Though he wouldn't outright say it, this mysterious ally's contributions were somewhat appreciated at least by the knight's but as a scientist and leader, it would be unwise to have complete faith in him, such loyalty can either be rewarded or taken advantaged of. More often than not, the latter is the more usual route, he worked tooth and nail to rebuild the once widespread Forever Knights, by his sword, that will not be in vain.

"Come with me, my knights." Chadwick ordered as he and the new knights made their leave. "It is time to remind the world that the flame of our order still burns bright." he'll play this enigma's game for now but in the slightest hint of betrayal, and he'll see it to that his services would no longer be required.

Plumbers Headquarters

When you're a part of an intergalactic police force dedicated to the safety and stability of the known universe, you would find that such a profession would entail a busy schedule that takes up a lot of time. Max Tennyson knew this better than most, his many years as a seasoned and experienced Plumber taught him that lesson, it was a heavy responsibility which only increased after his promotion to Magister of Earth. Any and all alien activity are overseen by him and the Plumbers' respond to those deemed a threat with assistance with multiple officers stationed on his home planet. After the Darkentor incident, he amped up security patrols in Belwood. "Sigma Team, what's your status in sector 4?"

"All is clear, Magister Tennyson."

"Epsilon team. All good on your end?"

"Everything is quiet so far. Nothing to report at the moment, sir."

Nodding in approval, Max Tennyson cut the communication feed off. "Magister Tennyson." he turned to see Rook walking up to him with a data-pad followed by Blukic and Driba. "I've done a thorough inventory of the arsenal and somehow, two personnel neglected to restock the ammunitions." the young Plumber sternly glared at the two Galvan engineers.

"That was Driba's job." Blukic defended himself.

"What? No it wasn't, I was in charge of communications' check." Driba contradicted his longtime friend.

"Liar. You just wanted an excuse to call Luhley."

Sighing, the seasoned Plumber looked the younger officer. "Rook. You know you didn't have to review the arsenal, Jerry usually handles that department and when it's not him, then Hobble."

"But as newly promoted Magister, I feel it is my obligation to guarantee that all is progressing at a satisfactory rate." Rook protested. "In light of the near invasion by those extra-dimensional beings, it is only the wisest option."

The grandfather of his good friend and partner laid a hand on his shoulder. "I already have that covered and don't let your new position oversee your life, many a guy made that mistake. Why aren't you with Ben right now? This is around the time you two go on patrol somewhere in Undertown."

Rook gained a downcast expression as Maxwell Tennyson brought that up. "Ben is...otherwise preoccupied at the moment. His last communication message said that he is introducing his team to the magic of smoothies, and those were his words. I did not want to intrude on him and his new colleagues, not that he didn't bother to extend me an invitation."

"You think he's trying to replace you?" Tennyson almost found that ridiculous.

"Wha-" the elder Blonko sibling.

"Magisters!" both turned to see Molly of Alpha Squad with urgent news for them. "Scanners spotted illegal level 5 technology!"

Mr. Smoothies

"What am I looking at?"

When Ben had called for an emergency legion meeting, Lance expected it to be of the upmost importance. But then he recalled that Tennyson was one of the less mature members of this team and of course, the important matter he wished to discuss was inviting him to his and Zak's universe. Not for an emergency that needs their attention or for some invasion, but for smoothies. The Omnitrix bearer recognized that despite being a team of superheroes, they're still entitled to having some recreation time. Some like the corporal would argue that holding meetings were only for actual meetings but Ben was a persistent one, that's for sure.

"Infinity Legion, welcome to Mr. Smoothy." Ben proudly declared. "Top hangout in all of Bellwood and has the best beverages."

"Maybe in your universe, dude." Ron rebuffed such a claim. "Bueno Nacho appeases to the customer's hunger and thirst."

"Are you two really comparing restaurants?" Sashi raised a brow.

"What? It's the truth, Sash."

Shaking her head in amusement, Kim leaned in. "Just let it go, Sashi. When Ron says Bueno Nacho's the best, just leave it at that."

"Take a seat, you guys." Ben guided them to the tables and went to the person manning the cashier. "I'll go ahead and order us. Ron, Jack, Penn, and Max, you guys can help me carry the trays."

Ilana sat down with a smile. "It was so nice of Ben to treat us to drinks."

"That and himself." Zak added with a grin. "Seriously, the guy is all over smoothies, why these I have no idea."

"Ben is aware that some of us don't possess the biological capacity to digest beverages, correct?" Octus asked on behalf of himself, Jenny, and Steel.

"Octus, I've seen eat an entire box of those...ice sticks? Is that what they're called, Cat?"

"That'd be ice pops, Ashi."

"Right, those."

"A fair argument."

Their teammates came back carrying the smoothies each being handed out to, Ben sat with a laid-back manner and gladly took in his drink along with the others. "So guys, what's the verdict?"

"EUGH!"

Marco once tasted Star's cupcakes despite the warnings from others, he didn't want to hurt her feelings but instantly regretted it but nonetheless told her they were good, at least a killer box that compels people to tell the truth wasn't involved. He didn't think he'd have to taste anything that wouldn't sit well with his taste buds more than those cupcakes, but then Ben introduced him and the team to Mr. Smoothies. "What the heck is in this and why do they think someone would drink it?" he took the tob off and smelled the liquid inside. "And Why do I smell Carrot? "

"It's vanilla mixed with carrot, Marco." Ben corrected, taking a slurp of his own drink with a concoction of grape and strawberries. "Best thing about Mr. Smoothy, they got the best kind."

Octus scanned over the ingredients and frowned. "Hmm. Marco makes a compelling point, the confides of this beverage includes ingredients that are otherwise incompatible, the management of this establishment should be aware of such a risk. Even more perplexing is that Ben, you say that you've been consuming these for an extensive period of your life?"

"Not when I was a kid but one slurp of these and I was sold."

Ilana observed Marco sticking his tongue out and paused a bit to consider drinking her smoothie, but didn't want to be rude to Ben's nice gesture so she sucked it up and took one slurp. She held her mouth to stop herself from regurgitating and swallowed, shivering at the feeling and gave a weak assuring smile. "It certainly has flavor."

"Tastes like vegetables." Manny gagged.

"Yeah...no." Sashi promptly tossed hers into the trash.

"You can have it, Plagg." Adrian gave his to his Kwami who gladly accepted. Jack and Ashi exchanged a look and silently agreeing, the married couple handed their over to Ron who was starting to fall under the spell of the Mr. Smoothy.

Star moaned in delight as she drank hers in a matter of seconds. "Mmmm! This one has corn mixed in!"

"Is there another purpose for you bringing us here, Tennyson? One less pointless." Lance droned.

"Not used to some R&R, eh Lance?" Ben playfully nudged, but the corporal was hardly amused. "Superheroes can have downtime too, you know. I do it pretty much all the time."

"Couldn't help but notice some kids playing a game that look just like XLR8." Steel noted.

"Oh, yeah. Bellwood's been a super hotbed for human-alien interactions, took some baby steps at first, but relations have been great so far."

"That sounds amazing." Ilana smiled, the thought of an alliance between Galaluna and her own Earth crossed her mind more than once after the liberation of the former Mutraddi occupied world. One that didn't extend to military assistance, she didn't feel like it was necessary for along with Lance and Octus to still pose as a regular human family.

"What about alien or human bad guys?" Marinette asked.

"My grandpa and the other Plumbers have it handled when I'm not around and usually, the baddies come to me."

"Cool, so no chance of bad stuff anything." Penn surmised, but was then splashed by Ben's spit take. "Okay, two things. One, what the heck? And two, pineapple with mango is an attempt man should never have attempted."

Ben looked at him as if he just caused the end of all things. "Why did you have to go and say that?! Now something's bound to happen and smoothie day tiem will be ruined!"

"Superstitious, much?" Kim chuckled.

Jack nodded in agreement. "Yes, don't worry about what could be, Ben. Whatever may happen, it happens in it's own time, not just by tempting our own fates."

Fate seemed to be quite the mischief maker as before an retort could be made, a sudden wave of energy engulfed over Bellwood that short-circuited all pieces of technology such as ATMs and electronic stores. Not only were those affected but so were Octus, Jenny, and Steel, the Galaluna robot's holo-matrix malfunctioned and shifted between Newton and Dad while the robot girl froze up with her eyes becoming dull and black and the ultra-link falling to the table but after a moment, they turned back on with all other electronical devices. "Did anyone see dark for a while?!" Steel frantically asked.

"There's still plenty of juice left in me." Jenny said, checking her readings.

"I detect a trail of an EMP surge, obviously from the one that had just set off over the Bellwood." Octus informed.

"See? This is what I'm talking about, act like nothing can get worse and it happens." Ben crossed his arms. "I'm vindicated."

Danny stood from the table. "Everything turned off for a whole minute. An EMP wave had to have came from somewhere." he theorized, getting into leader mode.

"All over it, Danny." Zak said, using the trans-dimensional device's tracking function. "The trail originated to the Billions company tower not far from here, if we hurry, we can see who or what caused this."

"Infinity Legion, unite!"

"But...we're already here." Boone reminded him.

"Oh. Right, right." Danny chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, let's just go."

An EMP device that actually works was quite a hard find, the Plumbers realize how easily they can be used to make an entire planet go dark in a matter of hours if powerful enough so any sort of EMP contraption needed to be registered. Of course, when it comes to the criminal element of the universe, there are ways to operate without the prying eyes of the red spots. "Surprise there's not much security here." Sir Morton said as he and the Forever Knights entered the Billions Tower. "This belongs to a super rich family, right? Half-suspected guards or robot butlers." he cracked, not that he minded a job going easy, just a little disappointed that there wasn't at least some resistance.

"The Billions family are currently occupied with assembling lawyers to absolve their son of his crimes." King Chadwick explained, walking in a regal manner. "Billions Tower is where the boundaries of cutting edge technology are pushed. It is almost as advanced as the Plumbers."

"So this is a raid, eh? I can work with that, but with all the loot our new friend gave us, you don't think it's enough?"

"One can never have too much, Morton." Chadwick checked his watch. "We must make haste. It won't be long until the authorities arrive."

By Forever Knights standards, engaging in such an endeavor would be frowned upon as they see themselves above petty thievery but right now, they need all the resource they can have in their disposal. It wasn't just Billy Billions having his parents come to his rescue but the benefactor hacked the security systems from wherever he was. The more enigmatic he is, the less Chadwick starts to trust him, he might as well play along as his new knights entered an armory with various weapons that could cause some damage.

"Quite a haul. Could make for quite the firefight, wouldn't you agree Mr. Tennyson?" Chadwick didn't even need to turn around, he recognized that bane's presence anywhere.

Ben had gone Jetray to fly to the tower and stood behind with crossed arms. "Too bad you'll never get the chance, your highness. By the way, what happened to your gorilla look? Had a whole simian schtick all planned out." he looked to see knights other than the twins, Forever Ninja, and Morton. "What's this? I miss out on psycho knight auditions?"

"What you see is the rebirth of the Forever Knights." Chadwick gestured to the new recruits. "Through trial and error, I have made it so that our once sacred order has risen from the ashes of Sir George and others who came before."

Ben scrolled at several alien icons to pick his choice of alien. "I've beaten Enoch and Driscoll when I was 10, lot of your guys tried one upping me but look where it got them. The Forever Knights are dead, and maybe it's time for you to move on."

"When this world is purged of infestations from the stars, only then will our mission be complete."

"Yeah, like we're gonna let that happen." Ben challenged, pressing down the core as purple rocks formed around him, and he became Chromastone. "Let me introduce you to some new friends of mine!"

A brilliant flash of light appeared and from it, the entirety of the Infinity Legion arrived which mildly surprised Chadwick. "Keeping yourself company with an entourage, I see. Very well, then. Knights, have at them!" he signaled his loyal knights to take aim with their laser lances and fired upon their hated enemy and his new cohorts.

"Get behind me!" Rex stood in front and a Block Party shield extended to protect the team.

Danny flew through the shield and shot finger blasts at their weapons to disarm them. "Marco, I need a portal!" Jenny's arm cannon shots travelled through the portal and struck throughout the complex. Knights who still had their weapons fired upon her in return all to give one of their guys a chance to use one of the weapons they confiscated from Billions Tower which were two droids designed as four legged insects that crawled around the place and clung onto her as she felt her systems power down, making her fall to ground, hard.

Ladybug spun her Yo-Yo at high speed and whipped it at both which sliced through them, freeing her robotic teammate. "Jenny, still got enough juice?"

"Mom sprang for an extended supply, Ladybug." XJ9 proved her point by opening up her back and releasing tiny projectiles that knocked knights everywhere she sees. One had a missile launcher ready until Octus sped up towards himand blocked it with his fist which blew only the knight away and Octus intact, he observed the knight as he landed, doing a full scan.

"Hmm. Curious."

Danny, Jake, and Chromastone flew side-by side, firing fire, green etcto beams, and multicolored blasts at the knights who shot at them in the air. "What can you tell me about these guys?" Phantom asked the Crystalsapien.

"Self-righteous jerks with issues, like to shoot anything from outer space." Chromastone replied.

"Any tips on how to bust these fools?" Jake swooped down and scratched their armor with his claws and travelled back up to those two.

"Just take out as many as you can."

"And also stop them from robbing the owners of this tower blind."

"Yeah, sure. That too."

Manus used concussive pods though a bit destructive, it was hopefully not enough to cause permanent damage to the building, he was caught by surprise when plasma-powered harkens that trapped the mechanical arms and legs that were hard to break through. Growling inside, Lance saw that as he was, he couldn't force his way out with the armor, which was why he deactivated it, rolling on the ground as a knight fired on him. He swept his feet under the knight's, Lance wrestled the laser lance out of his arms. The knight never got the chance to get it back once Lance hits him with the butt of the laser and fired with amazing precision, he got to cover and continued firing.

"Go Turbo! Speed!"

"Go Turbo! Mimic!"

Two blurs rammed the knights surrounding, all of them disappearing in the blink of an eye and they were all stacked up on a pile thanks to Max and Steel both in Speed mode. "This makes good exercise, it's like superhero jogging." Max chuckled, throwing a gun which hit one of their heads with a thud.

"I had that."

"Just looking out for you, Lance." Max defended.

"Then look out else wear." Lance snarked, running and shooting at the same time.

Marco ran, inadvertently drawing their fire to him and away from Cat Noir and Zak, both pole vaulted where they both fought them off with their staffs, using them to shield from laser blasts. Boone fired back, but purposely missed them to fire at one of the weapons the knights stole that fired stun pins. "Thanks for distracting them, Marco." Zak nodded towards him.

"Actually, I think they only shot me because of the red hoodie." Marco countered. "Should've gone for the blue one Jackie bought for me."

"But red's your color!" a magic blast launched Star into the sky to dodge an intense energy blast from a cannon on wheels. "Sunshine Incineration Burst!" that blast met with a heat-powered magic blast that put her in a power of will to out-blast him. Luckily, it was one that wouldn't be dragged out all dat with Rex ariding across on the Rex Ride and hitting the knights away with a right Smack Hand, Chromastone absorbed the blast himself and fired back at them. Placing his hand on the machine, his nanites went to work to completely disable it. The Slam Cannon scooped up the machine and launched across with Penn riding on before landing down and slicing the lasers guns apart, Ilana grabbed him by the shoulders when a missile launcher fired at him, their EVO teammate quickly took care of that by grabbing it away with the Blast Caster and kicking him right in the gut.

"So in this Earth, knights fight with lasers instead of swords." Rex knocked on the helmet of a downed enemy. "That would make that medieval show Noah likes to binge-watch ten times more cooler." he waved his Fun Chucks wildly hit them where they stood as they tried shooting him. "Foresooth! They haveth the might, but thou not be strong enough!" Rex exclaimed, imitating a British accent.

"Aye, lad. 'Tis a merriment this is." Penn agreed, but became downcast when he saw Rex wince and had a feeling that Ilana had the same look despite being in an armor. "The accent's a bust, isn't it?"

"Were you going for Irish?" Rex teased.

Ilana laid a hand on his shoulder. "It was good enough."

"Oy! Let's use those new lancers and the horses!" Morton shouted to the twins. The three brandished large weapons shaped like actual knight's lances and suddenly, hover vehicles shaped like horses appeared out of nowhere. Once mounting on them, they took off in a joust attack. The horses had built in lasers as well to make them more deadly. The Ninja and Jack were carried by Ashi as a large falcon with El Tigre running on all fours, Randy was dropped and threw ninja rings at the horses, nocking them off course. Two chains wrapped around both of them and yanked them off, both grunted when they got shocked by the chains.

El Tigre used his claws break the chain containing him along with Randy. The one who trapped them was the Forever Ninja, he drew his sais and approached with the aim to kill. "A ninja who's also a knight?" Ninja tilted his head incredulously. "That's two schticks too many, bro." he spun his own sais and ran forward, both clashed their weapons in rapid movements, the robotic fighter jabbed his right sai forward but its arm was trapped Randy's and flipped over until the robot unleashed smoke that blurred his vision.

Twin blades were pulled and two sweeps would finish him but a third blade struck, one belonging to Randy himself. Jack jumped off of his wife and blocked a second strike. "Can you see?" he asked Randy.

"Little fuzzy right now." Randy kicked it back. "But I got good hearing."

"Very good." the samurai nodded in approval, happy to see Randy using his other senses just as he taught him in one of their training sessions. "A robotic foe such as this one not to take lightly." Jack advised, knowing Shinobi-especially robot ones-are deadly.

"Yeah? Well, this metal hide's nothing compared to the real thing!" with his eyesight coming back, Randy went on for the attack. The Forever Ninja tracked his movements accurately and blocked each move. "Smoke bomb!" the horrid odor it gave off so putrid that its senses went fuzzy themselves, giving both the chance to disarm them it of its swords and they sliced its limbs off. "When in doubt, always count on smoke bombs."

Ashi dodged blasts from Morton's horse, she latched her talons onto the horse and screeched at the knight. "Eugh. Now that is one ugly bugger." Morton blanched. Before his eyes, the black falcon shifted back into Ashi who looked at Morton with fire in her eyes.

"Excuse me?!" she seethed.

Morton grimaces, knowing what was about to happen. "Bloody brilliant." she grabbed with a tentacle arm and threw him off with him screaming along the way with her firing a lightning blast for good measure.

The twins lead knights, firing at Lance who was cornered in a fort made out of debris, he could go back in his armor but their technology that counteracts technology makes it a liability for the moment. He had to settle for using a laser lance to fire back but they had strength in numbers and were pouring on a lot of heat that no lone soldier can face alone, at least not without Kim and Ron. The fiery redhead somersaulted backwards and did a quick jump kick while chewing gum and blew a bubble that expanded until it was fully inflated that trapped a knight, allowing his weapon to be taken. Her boy made several kung-fu noises, smashing his fists and feet into their helmets.

Kim went to Lance's aid and provided cover fire with him, he jumped out as both of them stood back to back firing at all sides, hitting those who came to close while covering each other. "WAH!" Ron's right palm struck a nearby sniper who had a clear shot, and flash-stepped to grab his girl and Lance out of the way from the twins to allow Sashi to fly straight at them and raised her blades, they tore through the horses making both twins fall.

"Leave Tweedle stupid and Tweedle dummy to me." Sashi craned her neck. Comedy and Tragedy pulled out plasma maces, thinking two of them ganging up on just one of them was enough but they didn't know Sashi Kobayashi. She trained her whole life in the art of combat and two weren't enough when she swept underneath after Tragedy tried hitting her and delivered an uppercut to him. Shots of laser were fired at their armors, and she placed her foot on Tragedy while aiming at Comedy. "Don't be even bigger idiots and stay down."

"Chadwick!" Chromastone landed down to face the king. "We're totally making your new knights look like chumps right now. You're a smart guy, know when to cash in the chips."

"Once again, you presume too much, Tennyson. I thought the pawns, bishops, and knights would be enough." Chadwick smirked cryptically. "Clearly, the time has come for the king to make the next move." his pupils shrunk down as his fists clenched. His entire skeletal structure and muscle mass expanded and yet devolved into a more primate appearance. Teeth sharpened into fangs, fur grew all over him and the interior was rocked at the primal roar he unleashed while pounding on his chest as he finished his mutation into a gorilla-like alien.

The Legion stood aback at this new transformation. "...That's new." Chromastone commented.

"Ben, why didn't you say anything about him turning into...that?!" Ashi demanfed.

"He was like that the last time I saw him, Ashi! Didn't think he could learn how to do that!"

"Still would've been good to know, Ben!" Ron suddenly shrieked. "I'd prefer a heads up when we have to deal with a monkey!"

"Um, you mean apes, Ron." Steel corrected. "Though similar, the difference is that monkeys have tails and-"

"Look out!" Danny shielded Max and Steel from a piece of technology debris thrown by Chadwick.

"A side-effect of the formula I took was that I was stuck in this horrid form." Chadwick growled menacingly. "For the victory of the Forever Knights, I infested my pure human blood with alien, an ultimate sacrifice that you will pay for!" he advanced towards Chromastone and grabbed him by the leg, swinging him around while smashing him against the wall. Chromastone tapped the symbol to turn into Big Chill and phase out of his grasp, leaving Chadwick's arm encased in ace which he broke through.

"Go Turbo! Clone!" several blurs hit Chadwick, that being Max Steel who made himself copies. All ran around him, creating a vortex to try and make the mutated king pass out from a decrease in oxygen which nearly worked. Key word being nearly, Chadwick reached into his cape and pulled out a rebreather mask and stomped his ground that shook the ground a bit, making all the Max's loose their balance and fall.

Claws grabbed onto his back and El Tigre struggled to hold him back but Chadwick grabbed the chain and pulled him into his hand. "Uh. Good monkey?" Manny chuckled nervously.

"I got ya, buddy!" laser shots from Penn grazed but didn't take Chadwick down, though he did let go of his teammate which was the aim. El Tigre grabbed onto the right foot and bit down on it, making him cream out, smacking on the ground to crush the kid who moved away. "Next time you have the chance to get away from a mad gorilla, take it, Manny. Learned that after a trip to the zoo."

"Look out below, monkey brains!" Rex descended down after taking a huge leap with the Punk Busters and crushed him underneath his metal feet. "Not gonna lie, dude. Bobo would so kick your butt." Rex was caught by surprise when the busters were lifted up by the mutant. Thrown off, he grunted in pain once he fell and the feet fell tp pieces. Chadwick lifted up some broken metal gun, holding it as a bat, ready to strike but the Yo-Yo pulled it off his hands and Ladybug kicked him in the face.

"I got ya, Rex." she said, helping him up, whipping Chadwick back with the Yo-Yo.

"Allow me, gorgeous." her partner charged up his power. "Cat-aclysm!" raising high with his staff extending, Cat Noir grabbed his cape and flipped it over making him not see Cat doing a jump kick to the gut which stumbled him back as the cape disintegrated. Separating the staff, he kept jabbing the sticks to his face. "Always here to help you out." he winked to Ladybug.

"While also wasting your transformation time?" Ladybug playfully chided.

Jenny's arms formed spiked hammers smashed at Chadwick who returned with equal force and he was too busy fighting back to notice Kim jumping on his back and taking out a spray that messed with his senses. She jumped out while also kicking him straight in the face, they saw Chadwick back up to a beam that Penn started slicing with his sword and lasers. Once it was weak enough, he gave it a push down to the king but it made him more annoyed than feel defeat. Jack defended him with his katana with his wife becoming a yeti-sized creature to wrestle Chadwick down so that Octus could shock him out, but he broke free.

Ilana grabbed him and flew up for Danny to encase in ice with assistance from Big Chill. Grabbing her golden arm, Chadwick threw her at both of them and got back down. Lance fired but saw that the laser lance proved ineffective and with the king's forces defeated, now was the time for him to reuse the Manus armor. A fist was sent Chadwick's way, but he jumped on it to climb up the armor until Zak climbed in himself and swept the claw which Chadwick grabbed and tried pushing Zak off. As he struggled, Zak put intense mental focus to stay in the fight, but suddenly, his weapon's clawed end glowed orange as did his eyes which resonated with Chadwick and both screamed as a result.

As Zak blacked out, he fell but Sashi caught him. "Zak, what happened up there?"

Zak nursed a throbbing headache. "Not sure, I...think we should get out of the way, Sashi!"

Chadwick nearly crushed them, Zak threw a smoke grenade to make for a clean getaway. As much as he would love to instill vengeance upon Tennyson and make the others pay for even walking the same steps as him and he didn't know why, but there was something about the ones in purple armor and the blue energy wielding masked guy that didn't sit well with him. "Quite an entertaining display. But the objective has been obtained."

"You?!" Chadwick sputtered at the familiar disguised voice.

"That's right. Me." Big Chill proudly declared with arms crossed. "The Forever Knights couldn't have beaten me on my own, so you sure can't do it with my new tea-" before the Necrofriggian's eyes, the Forever King was enveloped in a blue light and disappeared. The same happened to Morton, the twins, Forever Ninja and all the other knights disappeared right there, leaving a perplexed Infinity Legion.

"...Did we win?" Boone asked.

The Forever King had to admit, he expected their squabble with Ben and his allies would end with him and his cohorts dead to rights at the hands of the Plumber. But once again, his benefactor surprised him by providing a means of escape through a form of teleportation technology, of which he failed to inform them of before setting out. "Uh. We in jail yet?" Morton questioned, rubbing his sore head. Comedy helped his twin up and the Forever Ninja's arms shot out wires to the main body and reconstructed itself to working condition. "Huh. That's new."

"I took the liberty to include some upgrades for your android. A demonstration seemed much more appropriate." the benefactor's voice called out. The Forever Knights looked around and saw that they were in what seemed like a safehouse of sorts.

"Such as your demonstration of teleportation technology that not only transported us weapons but us away as well?" Chadwick sneered, not enjoying being kept in the dark of an apparent escape plan. "If you had a means of getting us out, why did you not inform us or see it fit to utilize it when those children arrived?" he demanded.

"Please. Spare me a moment to explain. While the technology would've made it quite easy for your escape, I needed to see how'd you fair with your new recruits and technology. Tennyson's new group was an unpredicted, yet intriguing factor. As a scientist yourself, you can understand my curiosity. Moreover, I had my reasons for sending you to Billions Tower, there was a tool there that I needed but knew that Tennyson's interference would hinder that. So why not involve another party that has a history of trading blows with that carefree child? He'd be too preoccupied he wouldn't have noticed one of my agents slipping in and out as soon as the tool was acquired."

"Doesn't make the ache on my back any better, mate." Morton sardonically grunted.

"To summarize, this was all some form of experiment and we were simply used as distractions?" Chadwick growled, stomping up to the screen showing his silhouette. "The Forever Knights are not errand boys."

The Benefactor gave off an amused chuckled. "Excluding the brief period when they became just that under that swindler, Argit's so-called rule."

Mockery to their order was not something that the knights took lightly. If it were possible, Chadwick would grab the benefactor through the screen and hold whoever it is by the throat. "What pray tell was the point of all this?! Did you truly supply us with new ranks and technology for the sole purpose of playing your game?!

"Be at ease, my friend. I assure you that our partnership benefits both of us. More to the point, the true objective of this mission was entirely worth it."

While still furious, Chadwick was now wondering just how fruitful this objective was. "Would it be too much to ask exactly what was so important?"

"All in due time. For now, I advise you to wait until you are called for another attempt prove that the Forever Knights are not completely wiped out. Oh and take your medicine while you're at it, a king should be presented with more etiquette."

Nothing more was said once the connection was cut off. Growling, Chadwick approached the Forever Ninja and its armed opened up to reveal a syringe that its king took and injected himself with it. Experiencing mild discomfort, the transformation that Chadwick endure became undone, he reverted back to his human form. He always felt pain not only when he changes but also when he changes back, still a miracle that the benefactor managed to cook up such a mixture.

Despite his gifts, Chadwick was still mistrusting of him but for the sake of the knight, he'll play along with his game.

For now.

Billions Tower

"Seriously, did we win?"

"You already asked that, Boone."

"It's a legit question, Jack. This is a different universe, when bad guys lose here, they get teleported away." Boone was met with skeptic and disbelieving stares from some of them.

However, Ron gasped at the notion. "Wait, like teleported to a secret prison for all the bad guys?"

"Ron, don't encourage him." Jenny shook her head.

"Don't see anyone else explaining what just happened."

Admittedly, that part Bonne was right about. Just as they were about to bust the Forever Knights, Chadwick and his cohorts were teleported away and from the looks of it, they were caught off guard by it as well. It was all so confusing and left so many unanswered questions that it might take forever until they reach a proper conclusion. "Tennyson. You said you fought this kind of enemy before, why didn't you tell us that they had a backup plan in case of a defeat?" Lance criticized.

"Hey, that's a first for me too, man." Ben responded in defense. "Also, that new tech that the Forever Knights had, first time I'm seeing it. But I wouldn't call this a problem, so they got a few new shiny toys and pulled a Houdini on us. We stopped them from robbing this place blind and showed them our stuff. Either way, it's a win."

Danny frowned in disagreement. "Wouldn't be too sure of that if I were you." He'd take an easy win as much as the next guy but there was something about this that smelled wrong, unaccounted variables that he couldn't ignore. "If they had a way to escape why didn't they just do it when we got here? Why drag out an entire fight?"

"Guys, Danny's right." Ilana agreed. "None of this makes any sense."

"Maybe they just couldn't resist a chance to beat the good guys." Cat Noir suggested, twirling his baton.

"Wouldn't be so sure." Zak spoke from spot on the ground, himself along with Octus and Steel were picking up some of the salvageable technology used by the knights. "They obviously weren't prepared for suddenly getting teleported away. The Forever Knights have been under the secret scientists' radar for a long time even after their fall, this doesn't match up with how they usually operate."

Siren sounds were then heard and they turned to see news, SECT and Plumber Vehicles arrive, Rook was among the Plumber force that responded to the alert of the Forever Knights break-in. The doors were kicked open as multiple officers surrounded the premises with their guns ready until seeing Ben Tennyson with the Legion. "Uh, hey guys. We already beat the bad guys." Randy waved casually but deflated once he remembered how they had nothing to show for it. Only they got away but hey, we managed to stop their heist. Right? Penn? Star? Marco? Max? That's a nice spin on this, right?"

"I fail to see how there is any form of silver lining." Rook said with a frown. "Ben, why did you not contact Plumber headquarters that you and the legion would be involved in apprehending the Forever Knights?"

"Because we had it handled, Rook. You should've seen us, we totally had them."

"Then where are the perps?" a gruff voice asked, it belonged to the leader of the other unit who was an imposing adult male with short blonde hair and a long scar on his face.

"Who's Mr. Sunshine?" Manny whispered.

"Lieutenant Steel, Manny." Ben whispered back. "They kinda disappeared, it's hard to explain."

"Then explain it to both me and the lieutenant back at the base."

"Base?" Ladybug questioned. "What base?"

Plumber Headquarters

"Woah..."

An organization with the moniker of Plumber would initially be laughed off as some sort of plumbing agency, but then you got the interstellar police force that acts as peace keepers across the galaxy. This sort of operation is anything but toilet fixers, their revolutionary underground HQ can attest to that as its inner workings and the personnel that were present showed how clean and efficient it can be. The Legion certainly thought so as they marveled at the whole place, even Lance couldn't help but give an approval nod, this is the sort of thing he would want the legion itself to act like most of the time. "Should've told me you were bringing guests." Ben's grandfather remarked. "Would've prepared some grub."

"Maybe next time, grandpa." Ben weakly smiled. 'Or hopefully never.'

"What was that, Ben?" Zak asked.

"I...didn't say anything."

"Oh. Thought I heard you speak."

"Check this out!" Steel shouted, getting the cryptid expert's attention. "Their mainframe runs a series of coherent algorithms, and the intricate wirings are just faint-inducing!"

Boone looked around the console and spotted a big almost hypnotic purple button, curiosity getting the best of him, he reached to push the button but Sashi's hand slapped it away. "Don't. Touch. Anything." she reprimanded. Shrinking in slight fear, Boone takes many steps back to resist the temptation of that button and save himself from his friend's wrath.

"Was never properly introduced to you kids." the magister of Earth exchanged a handshake with Danny. "Maxwell Tennyson, Magister of the planet Earth. Also never got the chance to give you all an official thank you on behalf of so many worlds for taking care of that whole Darkentor mess a while back."

"It was our pleasure, sir. So, I take it you want to know what went down at Billions Tower." Danny correctly surmised.

"Not just me, but the Special Extraterrestrial Containment Team." Maxwell Tennyson nodded towards the lieutenant who stood silently.

"Since when do the Plumbers work with SECT?" Ben asked, puzzled.

"It was an agreement made in the aftermath of the Incursion invasion. One of many moves to lessen growing tension between humans and aliens who seek refuge here, also as a way to work over the violation of interstellar law that the organization previously made." Rook gave his partner and friend frustrated look. "Did you not read this on the notice sent out to all Plumbers' badge?"

"Okay a; I was busy and b; What tension? Far as I've seen, things have been good."

"Maybe in Bellwood, but us for the rest of the world, it's a different story. Don't suppose you could show my point?"

Nodding at his request, Maxwell had the technicians pull up a news coverage of the incident from earlier that was showing on the Harangue Nation hosted by none other than Will Harangue who like Chadwick, also retained his human form. "Earlier today, the industrial complex of Billions Tower was a victim of both robbery and vandalism. The first offense was perpetrated by the terrorist organization known as the Forever Knights while the latter crime was thanks in part of Ben Tennyson and his new group of costumed hooligans."

"Hooligans?" Ron repeated, offended.

A sentiment shared by his teammates.

"Though it's claimed that this merry band of misfits tried to immobilize them, the criminals managed to get away. In the madness, much of the Billions' property and their products were damaged. I remember a time when the Forever Knights threatened me with my life to aid in their heinous acts of crime and let me tell you, Ben Tennyson only made it worse by interfering with my attempt to halt their plans and to add insult to injury, he had the gall to make transform me into a grotesque form for the thrill of it."

Star gasped and turned to Ben in aghast. "Ben, is that true?" when she did it to her math teacher, it was purely by accident.

"No! Well..." Ben fumbled at his words since that was actually true. "...Okay, yeah. But the guy had it coming, he wasn't blackmailed into helping the Forever Knights, he chose to do it. Remind me again why you guys let Blukic and Driba reverse his makeover? You gotta admit, it was an improvement." he said to Rook.

"It was the only way to stop all the complaints."

"Still pretty harsh, Ben." Max had to say it.

"Even though the Forever Knights' violent crusade is crude, it can be argued that they have somewhat of a point. Alien threats have come to our planet many times in the past and they just want to make it clear that they're willing to fight back without that nuisance, Tennyson. It's gung-ho threats like him that are the reason why our peace is always in danger. Placing our faith in the likes him is not the way, same with those that ally with him like the Plumbers or that new team of his. Who are they? Where did they come from? What's with the mask? Why do some of them dress in such an outrageous fashion?"

"Was he talking about us?" Cat Noir spoke for himself, Ladybug, El Tigre, and Ninja.

"Dude's just a hating shoob." Randy scoffed.

"Who exactly are these Forever Knights?" Jack asked the million dollar question at least for those not familiar with the group.

"Ben didn't bother tell you?" Grandpa Max asked.

"Thought it wasn't important." Kim sent a skeptic frown his way who flinched a bit. "Apparently, it is. Go figure."

Rook Blonko took over the console to bring up all the data they had on them with assistance from Zak with the crime database detailed on his Saturday device, hooking it up with the mainframe. "The Forever Knights were an organization of knights that formed over 1,000 Earth years ago." Rook recounted. "Their founder was a man with the uncanny ability of immortality named Sir George, it was founded upon the principles of defending Earth from anything unearthly, which I am sorry to say included alien life as well after a long conflict with an extra dimensional entity called the Dagon. All their goals either include forcing aliens off world or purging them."

"You mean murder." Lance concluded.

"...Essentially."

"That's-That's horrible." Ilana felt like fainting.

"As half-alien myself, that is just low." Max shook his head with an earnest agreement from the ultralink.

"The Huntsclan, but alien hating." Jake glared. "Aw man."

"Over the years, the Knights divided into factions with their goals but each with the same anti-alien intent." Zak continued. "George united them into one single banner to fight the Dagon and its followers, the Flame Keepers' Circle. It erupted into a full blown war that resulted in both parties being completely wiped out, including George himself. The Forever Knights we saw were the last few remnants led by Joseph Chadwick, a former scientist of theirs a former Knight named Sir Morton, twins, and a robot ninja. At least that was until they got some sort of membership drive."

"That is something I wish to address." Octus spoke, seeing his chance to share his findings during the battle. "I did a full scan on the combatants and from my recordings, I can determine that only their leader, the lead knight, and those twins were the only organic beings. Including cybernetic warrior in red, all of their "recruits" were not human. They were the same as it." to showcase it, he brought up a hologram of one such Forever Knight, revealing the wirings hidden inside.

"You mean they were robots, Octus?" Penn questioned in bewilderment. "That raises questions."

"Really? Seems to me like that Chadwick's gotten so desperate he's went and built himself new friends." Ben chuckled.

"Kind of sad." Rex started laughing too.

"But where would he'd have gotten the materials needed to build them?" Kim pondered with an inquisitive. "All the cutting edge technology looked pretty brand new. If the group was reduced to such a small number, how did they equip themselves with all that gear? Especially the teleportation thing."

"I think we should work together on this." Danny suggested. "Mr. Tennyson, you and the Plumbers have a lot of info on them, it could help us out in beating them."

Before he could respond, Ben interrupted by putting his own opinions involved. "Okay, can we stop and explain why you think the Forever Knights should merit all this intention? I've handled these clowns since I was 10, no matter how many kings took the reins or whatever faction tried taking a blow at me, they got their butts beaten and were completely wiped out. This new order is a joke, easy to handle."

"Look, Ben. No one's saying that you can't handle them all by yourself. But take it from me, this kind of enemy has a habit of being way more dangerous than the last time you've fought them." Danny told him. "If we're gonna stop them next time, then we need do some forward thinking. Make sure they don't blindside us again." with that, the team began to disperse and go with their own suggestions.

Sure, that would be a good move, but for Ben, he felt that it was unnecessary. The Forever Knights were one of his problems and just like all other enemies he's made in his long superhero career, he always managed to best them with help from his allies of course. But in this instance, he was certain that no assistance was required because the remnants of the Forever Knights are nothing compared to the old version of the group, he could go Grey Matter and he wouldn't have a problem. Much as he likes his teammates, they seem to be ignoring the fact that he's saved his own universe a number of times in the past and these guys would be easy pickings.

Time for him to prove it.

But if the Plumbers were willing to not go with his own way then it's a good thing he has other contacts. "Hey, Rex." he whispered to his friend. "Find those that are willing to end this way sooner. Follow my tracker." nodding in response

Undisclosed Location

In some of his more complex cases, when all else fails, this person always manages to be quite the resourceful genius when things get dire and though he wouldn't admit to his face, the kid knows exactly what he's doing. Not to mention the fact that this genius has complete faith in him and his capacity to be a true hero. Shows that he has good tastes in idols, not to mention his skill in searching all the unseen leads, knows the secret stuff that's right under people's nose.

He just hopes he's still home.

Who is he kidding? He's always home.

After knocking on the door, Mrs. Jones answered the door while holding freshly bakes cookies and once she saw Ben, she yelled out to her son. "Jimmy! Ben Tennyson's here."

"Just send him up, mom!"

"Would you like some cookies, dear?" she sweetly asked.

"For once, not really hungry, Mrs. Jones."

Walking up the stairs, he walked into the room of one Jimmy Jones, his biggest fan and manager of his own blog that deals with any of the real unordinary stuff. "Ben! Great time!" the young computer expert "You won't believe what everyone's been ranting about."

"How the team and I "failed" in stopping the bad guys. Trust me, Harangue's not exactly quiet about that."

"Oh people will forget about that. I'm talking about what they're saying about your new team!" Jimmy turned the chair to his computer, browsing through stuff about the legion. "Some recognize that machine you teamed up with when you were in Japan.(1) But everyone is already debating which one has a cooler power, who seems dateable and who's the way cooler hero."

"Yeah? Well, the last thing is way more important than-wait how can there be a debate on the last one?" he asked, indignantly. "Know what? Never mind, let's talk about the Forever Knights. The rest of the legion everyone needs to get involved to beat them but they don't seem to get that I am an expert in stopping xenophobic knights."

"Okay." Jimmy tapped his desk, confused. "So, why come to me?"

"You always seem to know what's going down with anything alien-related. Plus, you've helped me and my pals twice when the forever knights were involved. That makes you an expert too."

"Hmm. I can agree on that." cracking his hands Jimmy began to work his magic. "I honestly didn't think the forever knights would try another go after what happened in London? Which reminds me, how are things with Kai?" Ben sent him a look that read 'not the time'. "Right, not my place. Anyway, this bold move to rob one of the influential families in Bellwood makes me think what the reason was. Billions make very cutting edge tech, even more than before when they began hiring alien employees."

"They hired aliens to put alien tech in their products?"

"Well, they deny it but since their kid's in jail, there's no other explanation how they can still make cool stuff. And did a little digging, the security cameras were off but here's something I caught with my phone." Ben's number 1 fan put up a photo from his exclusive library one that detailed a blurry figure atop a rooftop. "After the break-in, the Billions family held a conference putting out a reward because they managed to steal one of their products."

"Which one?"

Dude, they have loads of stuff there, who knows what it was. But what I do know is there were some odd sightings somewhere in Santa Mira, which was the last place the knights were spotted until their appearance today."

"Then that's where we're going."

Ben and Jimmy looked in surprise when Rex, Zak, Ilana, Manny, Cat Noir, Star, Marco, Boone, and Ron with the latter two eating Mrs. Jones' delicious cookies happily. "Took you guys long enough to get here."

"Bro, takes a while for our transport devices' trackers to find you, thought we you were lost somewhere like Boone was when he went to the supermarket." Rex recalled. "We turned them off though."

"The place was a maze." Boone responded.

"You just needed to go the first aisle, and it was right in front of the entrance." Marco pointed out.

"Who's the kid by the way?" Cat Noir asked with a pointed finger.

Jimmy didn't know what to think, real live superheroes standing in his bedroom, sure it was cool when Ben would often come but a whole group of them collectively here. This was every 10-year-old's dream come true, the guys on the forums are so going to flip out their minds when he makes a post about this on the blog. "I-I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Jones!" he introduced in positive giddiness. "My mom didn't say anything embarrassing, did she? I can have her bake more cookies."

Zak furrowed his brows. "Wait. As in the same Jimmy Jones that made Ben's secret go public?"

Cat Noir's eyes widened at that piece of info and he, Rex, Manny, and Ron couldn't resist sharing a laugh just from hearing about it. "Wait. So, you're saying that a 4th grader managed to figure out your secret and blab to the whole world?" he surmises in-between laughs.

"5th grader."

"Aw." Star fawned over the young genius. "Look at him, he's like a mini-you. A Ben Jr."

Ben cringed. "Please never call him that again."

"Too late, Ben." Marco gave him a look of resignation. "She named him, so that's how it is. Better to just go with it."

"So, we going to this Santa Mira place or what?" Rex smirked.

"Depends. Sure you're completely on board?"

"If I wanted to listen to a bunch of stiffs drone on, I'd still be at Providence. Those armored goons got lucky last time, if there's a way to beat them a lot quicker than I'm game." Rex punched his opened palm with confidence.

"These Forever Knights are extremists." Ilana stated. "Stopping them sooner can prevent the loss of innocent life. Lance and Danny might not agree with how fast we might be going with this but time can't be wasted."

"Not to mention the reward." Manny added only to get nudged by Cat Noir. "What? They're offering."

Ignoring that, Ben turned to Cat Noir. "What about you and Marco?"

"Hey man, Ilana has a point and Ladybug's a bit too friendly with that Rook guy."

"Jealousy. That's it? Whatever, you do you."

"I choose to get involved because I think someone should make it clear that this is an insanely crazy idea."

"So you came for Star?"

Marco sputtered at the implications. "W-Wha-no! She can take care of herself! W-We're a package deal!"

Chuckling, Ben realized that these guys were in for the long haul, something he can respect and maybe it can prove that the knights weren't that big of an emergency. "Alright then." he punched in the coordinates for the town. "Infinity Legion, unite." the Forever Knights didn't warrant such a response from 3 organizations, which is why everyone will see that when a small group proves it.

"Wait!" Jimmy shouted, getting their attention. "Quick selfie?"

"...Okay, but just one and no duck face."

Santa Mira

All the Forever Knight castles that once served as their main bases of operations were all but gone after the war with Dagon, the Plumbers had them all raided and tore down while also confiscating all the weaponry as well. Even is he is a brilliant scientist, Joseph Chadwick couldn't find them a more grander HQ, only a hideaway somewhere in Undertown. Another benefit their benefactor provided to them, Morton and the twins might be taken with all the highly destructive weaponry that they've supplied for them, but from Chadwick's eyes, it makes the Forever Knights seem more like a charity case but if the plan goes without a hitch then that will be the first step in their resurgence.

"Remind me again why we chose this power plant?" Morton asked, standing next to the twins.

"The tool our gracious benefactor was so keen on procuring requires a sufficient amount of energy." his king answered. "It would explain why he said that this power plant was to be occupied by us."

Reservations or not, even Chadwick had to admit, the only device that was taken from Billions Tower was certainly worth it after its intent and purpose was explained in full detail to him. Before him was a rectangular-shaped contraption with circuitry lines of green color and the outer colors being a steel grey all connecting to a green core that blinked with each passing second. Once setting up shop here, the device was connected to power generators that began charging it with an unlimited supply of energy that can make it work until they see fit to turn it off. With this, the Forever Knights shall begin their journey back to what they perceive as greatness.

Knight sentries kept watch around the plant and one of them heard some clattering noises in the other room. Deciding to investigate, it went there but found nothing but its setting were set to heat signatures. There was only one signature but the assailant that was apparently invisible and acted fast once it jumped on the knight's head.

An inviable tail wrapped around the head and yanked it off, leaving sparks flying. "Man, Chadwick should take a cue from Jenny's mom or Galaluna about making awesome robots." ChamAlien, a purple camo-skinned alien with a reptilian appearance said.

"Dude, Jenny and Octus are both one of a kind, you know that." Cat Noir said with earnest as the rest of the team came inside.

Ilana opened the door ever so lightly and saw what the device. "That must be what must've been taken from Billions Tower." she frowned in concern over the numbers and the unknown nature of the device. "Guys, are we sure we can't bring in the others?"

"Ah come on, Ilana. Lance is probably telling some poor suckers over how their aim is poor." Rex's hands glowed with blue circuits.

"Yeah, princess sister. We got this!" Star raised her wand. "Wood Splinter Typhoon!"

Chadwick and his subjects were taken by surprise when the door busted open from a storm of splinters that had enough force. "You guys make horrible knights, you know." she insulted. "I mean, knights are supposed to live in a castle. Duh."

"You couldn't resist making a fool out of yourself and your friends, I see." Chadwick observed, unfazed.

"Says the guy that can go full on gorilla." ChamAlien retorted.

Narrowing his eyes, he nodded towards Morton and the twins. All three revealed circular objects that they placed on their chests which connected to their bodies. New coats of armors began to form themselves around them, Chadwick's new cape was discarded with a new suit coated in pure silver in reminiscent of a true warrior, he unsheathed a red energy sword. Morton's was more for close brawling combat, spikes shot out of the shoulders and kneecaps and his weapon was a wrecking mace. The twins had more sleeker designs that made it more easy to move and wielded lances that were made out of more sturdy material. "Knights, prepare yourselves." Chadwick ordered the sentries. "Let us punish these interlopers."

"Starting to think we should've brought Penn and Sashi." Marco gulped.

Boone coughed. "Um, hello." he pointed to himself.

"Exactly my point."

"...You know what? That's fair."

Ilana took to the skies where the laser of her Corus armor shot out at the firing sentries below all while keeping up a shield that defended her. Flying dowards, she grabbed two laser lances and crushed them with her hands and kicked them away. With these kind of underlings, there was no need for her to hold back, makes her wish Lance was here. He'd love this sort of all out battle

Rex charged with the BFS, clashing with Comedy and Tragedy. A swipe forced the twins to duck until a Smack Hand punched them into the wall, Rex pointed his sword down to them. "This was easier than I..." a rapid sound of something powering up made him look down to see explosives that the twins placed on the ground. Once they went off, he traded his current machines out for the Block Party, leaving him unscathed but when the smoke cleared, the twins' lances trapped him in between them and lifted up.

Boone's HUD looked through some scenarios to assist. "Star, work some magic!"

"Plush War Bear!" a giant plush teddy bear in battle armor brought down his decorated hammer that smashed them off. Portals appeared below them and Marco jumped out, creating another that Comedy rushed into when he ran forward to attack, tackling into Tragedy by accident. B telekinetic

Morton's mace extended by its chain once it was swung trying to hit the nimble Cat Noir and the Parisian superhero did a mid-air somersault. Landing down, his staff extended him up close to Morton and continuously hit him at any vulnerable spots but that armor was pretty tough. Not tough enough to withstand Ron's elbow to the face. "Keep it, up, Ron!" as he kept putting more hurt on Morton, Zak and Cat Noir kept attacking with their weapons. El Tigre's claws grabbed the shoulders and lifted him up before dragging the guy through the ground. Forever Ninja threw its own smoke bombs and helped free Morton and swung his swords that clashed with Cat's staff.

ChamAlien transformed into Terraspin and blew a huge gust of wind that would blow away even the biggest of lifeforms. Chadwick's armor had gravitational locks that kept him on the ground. His sword fired an energy blast that sent Terraspin into a wall, he remained down as the Forever King advanced with his sword raised. "Sir George found the order, and I shall be the one who is memorialized for reviving the Forever Knights and for putting an end to your pestilence!"

"Yap, yap, yap. Sure love to hear yourself talk." Terraspin went through another transformation and became Upgrade. "Always love messing with the bad guys' toys." he swarmed over Chadwick's armor.

Much to the king's delight. "So predictable." red electricity charged over the body, affecting the armor and by extension, Upgrade as well, making him yell in pain. Even more alarming, he found himself unable to disconnect from the armor. "Galvanic Mechamorphs are said to able to connect with any form of machinery and improve upon it." he went to the device that still continued to charge. "I was told this it would take time for this to be fully operational until it has enough power. Perhaps you can assist in speeding up the process."

"W-Wait...! What are you doing?!"

His right hand connected with the device and just as assured, it was up at full power. "Brilliant." Chadwick marveled. The device sent out a scanning wave that did a full survey on all of the organic material in the area and it concentrated on Star and Ilana. Eyes widening briefly, the king's eyes hardened at them in a scowl. Raising his sword, blasts were sent that with Upgrade, made them much more potent, hitting only legion members, knocking them out and deactivating the Corus armor. "Guys...no!" Upgrade groaned out.

"Your services are no longer needed." Chadwick deactivated his armor. Upgrade oozed off him and melted down like a puddle, weakened by the strain of being used. "Take the girls. They will serve as an example."

The twins hoisted both Ilana and Star up over their shoulders and gathered with their comrades. Zak's eyes groggily opened and watched as his two friends were to be taken prisoner. "Ilana...Star..." using the Claw to get back up, he shot a cable that latched onto Morton and launched straight at them just as their teleportation technology activated and they were gone.

Upgrade continued to lay there as the watch timed out. "No..." Ben breathed in horror.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

It was all so crazy, he barely had to time to react when a portal opened up and came the rest of the team. "Hold it!" alas they arrived much too late as they saw a guilt-ridden Ben and unconscious teammates.

Going back to Plumbers HQ was mostly silent, but for good reason.

Three of their roster were taken by the Forever Knights in a very ill-fated mission with disastrous consequences. All in a vain attempt to stop them while they still had a shot without wasting time. No one dared speak a word which only caused the tension in the room to increase ten-fold than it was before if that were even possible. Speaking of 10, Ben was the one who took this loss the hardest, he thought he could stop the bad guys and save the day as per the norm he's followed for a long chapter of his life. Now that he really took a time to think about it, he knew full well that in most cases, it was his friends and family who not only lent their moral support but also fought side by side with him through the thick of it all.

No matter how obnoxious and overconfident he's prone to being, they still put up with him no matter what and now he's starting to realize that he doesn't really appreciate them for it. When he was 10 and Z'Skayr turned the whole world into monsters, he, grandpa, and Gwen stopped that crisis together, that taught him the value of teamwork.

When the prototype Omnitrix was set to self destruct, he didn't even know it until Tetrax warned him and they all went across the galaxy to gind Azmuth and prevent a catastrophe.

During the whole Highbreed and DNAlien crisis, by putting together a team that started with Gwen and Kevin just as his grandpa told him, he brought together a force that ended the genocide of so many worlds. Saving the universe from the likes of Vilgax, Aggregor, the Incursions, Dagon, Maltruant, with every major threat, he had people watching his back. It was nice to think that they were willing to fight with him to save lives, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was also to make sure he didn't mess up.

But he just did and now Zak, Ilana, and Star were captured and he accepts the fact that it was his fault. "Guys," he began, with a deep breath. "I just say wanna say I'm sorry for-"

No apology was good enough for Lance as he pushed Ben up against the wall, hoisting him up by the collar of his shirt. "Sorry?! Your recklessness got Ilana, Zak, and Star captured! The Forever Knights also made off with a device that could very well win them whatever they're aiming at! Sorry doesn't begin to cut it!"

"Woah! Lance, cool it!" Jake yelled.

He and Rex moved to pull him off, but Lance was not about to budge.

Danny intervened by telekinetically separating them. "Enough! This is a bad situation, Lance! But arguing won't solve it!"

"Indeed." Jack said, also stepping in. "Now is not the time to fight amongst ourselves. We must work to save our fellow comrades from the enemy and stopping their plans."

"You should've told that to Ben sooner, Jack." Sashi snidely snarked, giving him a glower of epic proportions. "All of you for that matter. Were you even thinking when you did this."

"Look, don't blame them, Sashi. I was the one who wanted to strike out on my own, they just wanted to follow my lead." Ben said, not wanting anyone getting blamed for his shortcomings. "I-I thought I could've taken them."

"Why? Because you did it before?" the Japanese girl shook her head. "You save the day again and again and that's supposed to what? Make you seem like an expert on it? That may have worked out for you in the past, but these guys have obviously upped their game. Last thing that can help is you showboating on us."

"L-Look, let's play the blame game later." Marco gently said, trying to keep it together.

"Oh come on, you saying you're not angry, Marco?"

At that, Marco failed. "Of course I'm angry! Right now, those knights have Star doing who knows what and instead of doing something about it, we're just fighting each other instead of them!" he ranted. "Did Ben mess up? Yes. But, I care more about getting Star and our friends back so why aren't we doing that?!"

"Through their trackers, Marco." Ashi answered, calming him down with a hand on the shoulder. "We're lucky that Ron left his tracker on for us to follow."

Manny turned to Ron in surprise. "Wait, really, Ron?"

"Kim thought it was a good idea in case we got in over our heads...until it just turned off."

"There was a disruption field across Santa Mira, the knight's handiwork I'd wager." Jack surmised. "Clever foes, they are. With any luck, the devices of Ilana, Star, and Zak are still operational. We should get to work on that."

As everyone dispersed to do anything they could to find the forever knights, Ben decided that he did enough damage and walked off, citing that there wasn't much he could do right now. There was a time where he would've been good enough to lead a team like this, but ever since then, he's been proving that wrong. "Not gonna help?" Cat Noir asked, standing with Jack, Kim, and Danny who took notice of him moving away from the ops center.

"Making sure I don't go off again?"

"Making sure that you're okay." Kim countered. "Never a good idea to beat yourself up about it, Ben."

"Though your actions were ill advised, Ben, you're still willing to admit your mistakes. That shows character." the samurai complimented.

Nice sentiments but didn't really change anything. "Ben, you're not alone. Nearly everyone on this team has made the same kind of mistake in the past, it's almost unavoidable." Danny told him with a sympathetic expression. "Been at this kind of gig for so long, it just all seems so simple until you realize it's not always the case."

"That's just it. I've had to learn that lesson too many times and when I do, people get hurt and no joking around can fix it." Ben stared at his Omnitrix thoughtfully.

"I always have this what-if scenario in my head where the watch got to my grandpa like it was supposed to. Just so happens that I'm related to him, could've been my cousin, Gwen, instead and honestly, maybe they would've been better. Grandpa's been in the game longer than I have, he knows what it means to really be a hero and what makes one, would've turned out a whole different without him." Didn't even have to imagine, been to another dimension with that sort of situation. "And Gwen always thought ahead, knew the right ways to save lives and looked at the bigger picture. Me, when I got the prototype, all I cared about was the thrill of it and even after all these years, I keep relapsing."

"Maybe you're right. But you're also wrong." Cat Noir stated and continued. "Look, dude, you can be cocky which coming from me is saying a lot. But, one thing we have in common is that we do this because we choose to help people. Save lives. While you went to that Jimmy kid, your grandpa and blue pal told us how you moved heaven and earth to save the day no matter what. Ego aside, you know how to be a hero, pal."

"The real question, are you gonna relapse or are you gonna prove it?" Kim asked.

"Guys!" Manny rushed in. "Steel, Rook, and Octus have something."

Returning to ops, they looked to said three. "We managed to identify the device that the forever knights are using." Rook put said tool up in hologram form for all to see. "It is what's called as a Biometric Identification Enclosing Module."

"What's up with all the confusing anachronyms?" Ron shook his head.

"The BIEM is designed to scan and concentrate on unique DNA strands not matching the strand it's set to." Octus clarified, dismantling the hologram to show the intricate workings of it. "The strand it was set to last was that of human DNA. Once fully activated, it can scan and confirm those whose DNA are somewhat different than that of humans."

"Alien." Ben spit out in realization. "It tracks anything non-human which is alien. Before Zak charged at them, Chadwick only wanted to take Ilana and Star because one was Mewman and the other was Galalunian."

"Precisely." Steel pointed to the person who was on the nose. "While the biology of both Star and Ilana resemble human, there are markers and other elements like the former's magic that make them unique from a normal human's."

"Why would an industrial rich family make something like that?" Randy asked.

"Records show that it was one of their son's works that they shelved following his recent arrest." Rook gazed at the hologram with a wary look as the possibilities of such a machine. "We've gone all worst case scenarios. Given the fact that the forever knights have acquired an advanced arsenal, it would stand to reason that they may have a way to amplify its reach to perhaps the entire world."

"Then they'll be able to know where every alien on Earth is, with or without an ID mask." Grandpa wiped some sweat from his brow. "And with their new numbers, it'll be the purge on a much grander scale."

"Okay, that's a bit too far don't you think?" Ladybug nervously asked. "I know they're all about anti-alien but do they really have enough tech to make it happen?"

Ben looked to Rook. "You're certain about this?"

"All odds point to it."

"Then if Rook says it's possible than to me, it's a guarantee."

Rook blinked, not expecting that kind of response from his partner. "Uh, thank you, Ben. I should go inform the lieutenant."

Ben looked around the legion, specifically those who are still sore. "We do this right this time. Only now, we know exactly what we're getting into and we have to stop them and save Ilana and Star. It's gonna take all of us. That is, if you're willing."

Neither of the Legion objected, whatever personal feelings there were, that didn't matter right now.

After the teleportation was done, Zak fought bravely against the forever knight forces and free his friends but they had strength in numbers and nothing from his bag of tricks could've save him from also being bounded as their prisoner. "Though your choice in allies is flawed at best, I must commend you in your valiant yet foolish effort to win the day, young man." Morton laid the captured Saturday next to Star and Ilana, both of which had a wand and watch confiscated by Morton. The place where they teleported was an chasm somewhere in the middle of nowhere and there stood a tall installation that was connected with the BIEM.

"This place was the sight of an epic clash for the ages. Our order, the Forever Knights, stood tall as we fought off the forces of heretics who chose to follow the whims of an insidious monster. Many brave knights fell in battle and it was foolishly believed that it marked the end of the Forever Knights forevermore. But we are living proof that the order can be reborn anew once we find and exterminate the infestation that has no place in our world. You three will be fitting examples." he smirked towards the captives.

"How do you even hope to achieve this?" Ilana asked, glaring up at him.

"Quite simple, my dear." Chadwick gestured towards the instillation. "This transmitter was another gift to us, it will amplify the device to extend a scan across the planet, pinpointing any marker of non-Earthling DNA. Just as it did with you two girls. You don't appear to be wearing ID masks but it can tell that you're anything but human."

"So what?" Star questioned. "We may not be humans, but that doesn't mean we want to tear apart Earth. It's the only other place I can call home, I have friends, people that I love here. Just because some may look menacing and do stupid things but look at you guys, you're not any better." listening to these guys reminded her of the Monster prejudice on Mewni.

"Not everything other worldly has a sinister purpose, you must understand that." Ilana urged. "The actions of this Dagon doesn't define others as a whole. You say that you're on some righteous quest, but all you're doing is letting hatred dictate your life."

"It can be a good motivator when trying to save the world."

"Well, as people who saved more than one world, you're doing it for the wrong reasons." Zak contradicted. "You were a scientist, the Forever Knights' views go against everything you're supposed to rationalize."

"Enough!" Chadwick roared. "I will hear no more of your blasphemy! It won't do you any good when the new age starts and this world will enter a new age of everlasting peace. Activate the machine!" he ordered the Forever Ninja. It entered the activation code and the machine charged up, ready for the full scan of the Planet and once doing so began to look for anything non-human it could find much to the legionnaires' horror.

"Numbers are counting up, boss." Morton reported.

The Forever King grinned, they had much work to do.

"Chadwick!"

Laser lances were immediately pointed when a familiar face entered the scene. "Ben!" Zak, Ilana, and Star shouted upon seeing their teammate arrive with a steel gaze.

"Come to be the hero once again." Chadwick chuckled amusedly. "Much as take pleasure in it, I'm sorry that you are too late, Ben Tennyson. The machine is already delivering us our targets and we are ready to start our great journey."

He expected a sarcastic and snarky remark on comment from the revered teenager but surprisingly, none came, he instead began to talk almost in a civil manner. "In the time I knew him, George was an honorable man. Sure, he had twisted views that were faulty, but he fought against evil and won all to save his fellow man, something I can respect. He wouldn't have become the man that he was if it weren't for his sword that was made by an alien, one of the few he respected, he also thought he could do everything himself, can't tell you how much I could relate to that. No matter his faults, the guy fought until the bitter end. You want to be as good as him, even better than don't be as shortsighted as he is. It's what killed him."

Clenching his fists, Chadwick shook his head in denial. "No. What killed our great founder was a monster not from this world! All beings such as it have no business desecrating our planet and it is our right to cast them all to oblivion! Have at him!"

The Forever Knights charged at the lone hero who transformed into Crashhopper and leapt away with his enemies following him. He jumped from the armor that blew the knight and others away from the shockwave that occurred and did so again and again, ramming into Morton with his hard skull but his plating was thick enough for Morton to stand his grown. Crasshopper fell down with a thud, so he became Armodrillo and went underground for sneak attacks from below. Comedy and Tragedy threw down grenades at the holes he left behind, creating blasts that forced him topside and tumbled on the ground, nearly dodging their lance weapons. He opted for a combo attack by going Stinkfly first and shot out goo at their feet, then became Heatblast and blasted them, causing them to be rocked by explosions. Forever Ninja threw ice bombs that froze parts of him that melted away while its king struck him many times with his sword.

"We have to help him!" Ilana struggled against her binds.

"Let me." Zak surprised them when his cuffs got off with ease and helped free them. "Thank my uncle Doyle for picking locks."

"Thanks, Zak. But my watch and Star's wand are still trapped"

Star saw both items encased in a small cube prison that could only be unlocked by Chadwick by DNA recognition. The wand always responded to her when she casted spells, then maybe it could respond to this. She reached out her hand and focused, put everything she had and focused on the image of the wand in her hands.

She dipped down as her teammates watched in amazement when her cheek mars and eyes glowed. The royal magic wand resonated with her and glowed as well, creating a wave that destroyed the prison and floated to Star's hand, her glow dying down. "Woah. Didn't know you could do that.

"Still practicing." she smiled. "Now. Sparkle Burn Wave!" she blasted them away with a surge of stars that were igniting. Ilana flew as Corus, forcing them away with her shields. Zak slid under them, using the Claw to trip them all over, he got back up and dug his weapon to the ground and spun around on it, kicking repeatedly.

"Guys, follow my lead." Heatblast whispered, becoming Fasttrack and zipping them away, thus making the Knights follow them.

"Running away? I'm almost disappointed." Chadwick had his subjects surround the team. "You can fight all you want, Tennyson. It'll hardly make a difference once we have all the alien signatures of the world."

Fasstrack grinned in response. "Yeah, I never said I was here to destroy that thing. It's there job."

"Cataclysm!" that single declaration was heard, forcing everyone to see Cat Noir use his unique superpower on the transmitter causing it to rust and decay, being dealt final blows by. Danny hovered in the air, blasting ecto blasts alongside Jenny who launched missiles, Ashi's sonic screams made it budge, and Jake shooting fire balls. Max Steel flew in Flight Mode while blasting extremely turbo powered shots from his Turbo Blaster with Ron below them, hitting the thing repeatedly with Penn and Sashi. With them were Rook, Plumber, and SECT forces that were pouring on some more damage, they all were hiding until Ben was able to lead them away.

"You were a distraction." Chadwick realized too late as he saw what was to be his crowned jewel be toppled.. "No...NO!"

"Just realized something before, never got the chance to completely your plans before. Why rob them of the chance?" Fasttrack spun his arms around, creating mini-tornadoes that lifted him up and clearing the area of the knights so that he and the team could go reunite with the Legion. The Forever Knights has the same idea and ran to stop them, exchanging fire with Plumbers and Sect alike. Comedy and Tragedy double teamed on Marco until they were blasted by narwhal blasts and rainbow fists. "Star!" Marco ran towards his best friend.

"Marco!"

Both reunited in a heartwarming hug. "Are you okay?!" both asked at the same time. "Of course I'm okay!"

"Well, ain't that sweet?" Morton raised his mace to attack. Marco slipped into a portal to land a kick at this face that distracted the knight from Star launching stuffed kitty bombs.

Rook fired energy arrows from his Proto-Tool's bow mode being defended by Ladybug's Yo-Yo spinning. Lance deployed a spear to attack those that fired upon him until bein hit by some missiles. All launchers were then cleaned off by Ilana's sweeping laser, both landed down and deactivated their armor where concern washed over Lance's features. "I know what you're going to say. But-" Ilana was cut off by Lance hugging her, momentarily surprised, she returned the hug with a smile.

The Forever Ninja jumped high with his plasma swords to strike at Jenny until a chain sickle entrapped him and forced him to collide with the ground, the human Ninja threw green orbs that grew into a giant branch that squeezed him. "Ninja plant ball, pros to being the real thing." he jumped at the Forever King's charge and Jack stood in his way.

"Stand aside, as king, I am saving humanity!"

"A wise ruler knows when to surrender!" With enough force, Jack's katana broke Chadwick's to pieces. "Now, Manny!"

El Tigre's claws trapped Chadwick in chains for Kim to knee in the face.

All Chadwick could see now were stars and the sight of the transmitter crumbling down and with it, their plans for the order's rebirth.

Didn't take long for him along with his knights to be detained and ready for prisoner transport, he and his underlings were stripped of their advanced armor and weaponry. "Hold up," Ben walked up to them, wanting some answers. "You got some explaining to do. For starters, where did you get all this new tech?"

"I believe its more appropriate for interrogation to be held in the station."

"We have plenty of time." Rook crossed his arms, in the same boat as Ben. "Your weapons and armors were newly made and more importantly, where did you find the assets to build yourself an army of androids?"

Chadwick's brow furrowed in confusion. "What in blazes are you talking about?" Max Steel answered that question in the form of removing one of their helmets and showing the metallic body inside. This came as a surprise to not only to the king but also to Morton and the twins as well, having no idea that they weren't organic all along. "How-" Chadwick's eyes widened in realization. "Him."

"Him." Ben repeated. "Him who?" he pressed.

Just as he was going to speak, Chadwick suddenly grunted at the familiar feeling spreading through his system. Only this time, it felt more extreme and much more painful than the last few times. "H-Help me..." was the only thing he got out before his mutation was complete, only he was different this time, he didn't speak only grunted and roared, smacking away his fellow knights, acting on pure animal instinct. Max Steel went Strength Mode to keep him still for the Plumbers to hit him with enough sedatives to calm him down.

"What was that?" Penn asked after stunned silence.

"Guys," Zak rubbed his head. "I don't think he knew about the robots."

"How can you tell, Zak?" Jenny asked.

"Scientist's intuition?" truth be told, he had no clue how he was so sure, there was an itch in his head that told him that.

"We'll handle it from here." Grandpa told them. "You all worked hard, get a night off it'll help."

Rook moved next to his partner. "Your team did impressive work, Ben."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Ben agreed, nudging his side. "But that doesn't mean you couldn't have done any better, partner. I don't suppose you could help when we need it?"

Smiling, he nodded. "Anytime, my friend."

Ben turned to the three teammates that were captured due to his impulsiveness. "Hey. I'm sorry that you guys got captured, didn't want you to have to go through that."

"It's alright, Ben." Ilana assured him with a smile. "We made the choice."

"Which wouldn't have happened if I had just followed your lead instead of my own." he looked around the team with a remorseful expression. "In the time that I lead a team, I was used to the leadership role, not the following type. Sure, I got some cool aliens on standby but you guys have your own schtick that are just as useful. Sorry for not appreciating that."

Sashi was the first to step up and playfully punched his shoulder. "That's for being a jerk. But just as long as you don't put the team in jeopardy, we're cool...for now."

Penn patted his back. "Trust me, Ben. She could do a lot worse."

"I could for some celebratory smoothies." Star licked her lips.

Much to the Legion's relief, Ben shook his head. "Smoothies are a daytime thing, wait 'till you guys get some chili fries." his phone buzzed, making him stop for a sec and pick it up. His eyes widened at the caller ID. "Julie?"

"Hi, Ben." his ex called from the other end. "Good hear you."

Uh...hi. Yeah, good to hear from you too. Sorry for not returning your calls, had a lot on my plate."

"I get it. Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be stopping by in Bellwood soon."

"Oh. Well, that's cool. Hopefully, you and your boyfriend won't get kidnapped again."

"Actually, Hervé and I broke up."

"...Really?"

"Yeah. I just want to clear my head, you know?"

"Yeah, I can get that. Cool if I stop by to help in anyway, you know as a good friend."

"I'd like that."

"Cool." Ben smiled as they exchanged their goodbyes and went off with the legion.

Things are beginning to look up for him.

Chadwick and his knights' plan ended in failure.

But that didn't mean their benefactors ambition wasn't fruitful. In all honesty, he didn't care if they succeeded or not, he merely wished to observe Ben Tennyson and this collective that's been formed. So many of them intrigued him, all the experiments he could do with all their unique tools and objects, but he should save that for another time. "Were the androids successful?" a booming voice belonging to that of an imposing figure, one with a head that had tentacles extending from his chin and battle armor. Vilgax, infamous warlord and conqueror of 10 worlds stood at his ship's helm and wanting a detailed report of the assignment.

As for the Forever King, he served his purpose. A pity that his benefactor was the only one who could help him keep his human form but also has the means to forcefully transform him through mental commands.

"Yes, your lordship. They managed to show us exactly what Tennyson's allies are capable of, they are a tricky bunch."

"Adequate as they may seem, they shall feel my wrath like all others." Vilgax' eyes narrowed. "Your agent has quite the impressive skill in stealth, Servantis."

Proctor Servantis, a former member of the Rooters, a black ops sub-faction of the Plumbers. "Agent Swift never disappoints. Leander and Phil are prepped ad ready for their assignments as well."

"So far, you have performed well since I plucked you from the Null Void. Your drive to destroy that accursed child is one I can find solidarity in, but your extensive knowledge of the Plumbers were a primary reason. Count yourself fortunate that Psyhon managed to construct my own Null Void projector and that I had no other reason to turn it on." the leader of the Vilgaxians warned him.

"Do not worry, my lord. Everything is progressing smoothly."

"Be sure it stays that way. I must admit, Tennyson has changed somewhat, he rarely ever allows others to strike the final victory."

"He is still an irresponsible danger." Servantis implored with a glare. "This universe will be free of his danger, then all will see the truth as I do. and you'll be free to continue in your conquests. Have you set the coordinates?"

"Indeed." Vilgax stretched his hand forward. "Osmos V awaits."

This was an alliance unexpected, but at the same time, they were united by their dream of seeing Ben Tennyson killed and any who stands with him.

Lot of things coming into play later on.

Stay tuned.