A/N: Greetings! I want everyone to know that the ending might seem INCONCEIVABLY convenient, but I promise it isn't what it seems. Also you may not like how I've changed the order of episodes in season too with this one, but I hope you understand my decision in doing so...

Next Episode/Chapter: Gwen 10: The Rewrite?

See you then!

Chapter 18: All Quiet On The Western Front

June 21st, 2005, 10:46

Max had quickly pulled Kevin off the crashed vessel and carried him into their mobile transport.

Gwen, more than a little confused and very fed up with this, stomped her foot, a soft violet and blue light emanating from her stomp shaking the Rustbucket. Max stopped his quick observation of the young boy's injuries to turn and look at his granddaughter, it was unlike her to suddenly act...well, like a brat.

"What's wrong honey?"

"What do you mean what's wrong!? Kevin's back, but Ben's still not here!"

Max would have rolled his eyes at the obvious statement, but he could see the worry basically rolling off of her in waves. It was almost palpable in the air. They had been worried about Ben. About his actions and the way he used the device in his wrist and how far he was willing to go, like he was a different person essentially. He had wanted to sit down and talk it through but so much had happened and so much had driven them apart. The ground they stood upon concerning Ben was more relatable to a thin sheet of ice over water. They had to build up that confidence before they could get him to open back up.

"I know honey, and the sooner he gets better the sooner he can tell us why that is."

Gwen wasn't happy. Not at all. Not at Kevin disturbing the rickety peace. Not at Ben for resorting to a fist fight with a kid. Not even with grandpa because he couldn't solve her problems for her. But in that lie her issue, she couldn't fix her problems—any of them really—and those around her couldn't fix them for her. It was an entirely new thing in her life. She wanted to make her parents happy? She did well in school. She wanted to be able to defend herself from smelly Kirby Bates, she learned Karate. She wanted to avoid a summer of aimless nonsense; she made a color coded chart to ensure she made the most of every day—she chose to ignore the fact that in that instance her plan had fallen through.

But here she was. Almost twenty days into summer vacation and she was failing at just about every turn! It was infuriating. It was embarrassing. And worst of all she had a means to change that…

She had the charms Ben had acquired from their magic opponent not so long ago. He had so casually handed them over and had done nothing to prevent her from becoming a hero herself. But here she was doing nothing…

The ringing of the rust buckets mobile phone brought her out of her pessimistic thoughts, her eyes moving to Grandpa Max who chose to ignore the phone in favor of looking over Kevin. He seemed to have quickly gotten over her sudden tantrum, leaving her to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi Gwenny...is Benny there?" Spoke the voice of someone Gwen was equal parts relieved and horrified to hear.

Ju'Nai 7th, 103rd Year of Kallar, 13:56

The Ectonurite was more than a little fed up at the fact that he had been effectively marooned. That sore loser had somehow remotely activated the ship's hyperdrive and without any set location or improperly set location might be more apt, he was now floating over the wreckage of some gladiatorial battle ship that had seen much better days.

But that was already a forgettable tick mark on the grand scale. He was marooned. He had no way to secure communication with earth or plumbers or galactic enforcers units nearby. Adding to the headache his knowledge of the Tetramand homeworld was scarce at best, and slim to none at worst. His body moved through the warm air, the blazing sun tingling even through his protective skin layer. Being an Ectonurite came with so many pros that one could often forget about the few drawbacks.

His pale hand came up to cast a shadow over his violet eye and he looked skyward. True enough there was only one sun, but it felt like seven bearing down on him all the same. It was a trade of sorts, the green shine spread across the open landscape and from it emerged the red giant. Four-arms came crashing down with a muted this as his feet met sand, the grains rose into the air with a dust cloud for a long seconds before settling.

All four of his golden eyes looked toward his outfit. The usual tight fitting black pants with white shirt with a black accent. On earth this would have been pretty normal, on most any other world really. But in Khoros he looked too much like an outsider. Like some lost tourist or something. But there wasn't much he could do about his attire...unless he fancied traveling the harsh desert naked.

It probably meant something if you laughed at your own jokes but Four-arms didn't really care, instead he took one final look at the downed ship of his most recent adversary before bending his legs and taking to the air with one mighty jump.

June 21st, 2005, 11:14

The on sight paramedic took Kevin without too much of a hassle, but Max still wasn't looking forward to answering many questions about how the boy came to be injured—considering he had no clue and therefore couldn't lie to a degree of honesty.

Meanwhile on the other side of the lobby sat Gwen who had her custom arm brace on with her three preferred charms attached, and a spare in her hand—that her thumb was doing its best to wear away.

Beside her was the dark skinned pain in her neck Mandy Blake Evans.

Miss Evans had called them, apparently Mandy's dad had been found on the roof of the hospital and upon entering the facilities had attempted to run away with his comatose daughter despite the warning of the doctors. He was caught by hospital security and questioned about his manic and hysteria filled episode. He failed to provide a valid excuse, going so far as to claim he had been confronted by someone and he believed his daughter's life was in danger. Of course no security cameras caught sight of his assailant but they did catch footage of him screaming at thin air and recklessly endangering his own life by flinging himself over the railing. They had taken him away for help. Mrs. Evans and the young Evans boy accompanied her father upon her behest, which meant she would return to accompany Max Tennyson.

But little did Gwen know Max had been filled in on a much scarier story. While the hospital staff did in fact believe Mr. Evans t be mad, Max had gotten a short chance to speak with the man everyone claimed was deranged and what he heard was indeed very terrifying. The man told Max of how he'd been assaulted by an Ectonurite. Max was...unhappy, unsure, and wary. He promised to look after the young girl until he got out.

Meanwhile, Gwen would like to say she had nothing against the girl. But she wasn't one for lying if she could help it. So she wouldn't, especially not to spare Mandy of all people's feelings. In fact she would almost assuredly take immense satisfaction finally telling this girl off. She just had to find a way to do so.

As if the Australian American had read poor Gwendolyns very thoughts, Mandy's head turned to her and an all too sweet smile graced her face, revealing sparkly teeth just past her lips, it was a silent claim that she knew exactly what Gwen thought of her and welcomed the challenge. Gwen was so very tempted to use one of her charms to get even with the girl. Whatever 'even' meant. But a fear she couldn't quite place made her stay her hand.

"So Gwenny, aside from being very timely with picking me up you haven't done much to fill me in."

It was a hidden jab at her, or not accurately a way for Mandy to let Gwen know that she was taking notice of the girl ignoring her, being more hostile and whatnot. Mandy didn't think much of it, before Gwen came into possession of the charms she was less than a speck of dust behind the couch, and with them? It was funny, she knew Ben had taken down an experienced user of the charms before and whether or not Gwen knew she wouldn't act against Mandy. It was that subconscious fear. Like a parent afraid of breaking their parents tools or Knick knacks, it didn't end well.

Gwen gave the blue-eyed girl a mean glare before rising and leaving to join Max.

Ju'Nai 7th, 103rd Year of Kallar 14:37

The battle was never going to be in their favor. It was their band of twelve against an entire tribe which likely numbered in the higher tens if not a few hundred. Even now facing off against this pitiful six man scouting party they were getting slaughtered. Of the twelve of them four were dead, and six injured—possibly beyond help the battle was too frantic for him to really get a clue on their injuries. But all the same here he was running behind their leader as three armed scouts that roared like feral beast.

Yes here he was running behind their leader, stronger than all of them put together and then some, charismatic enough to convince them to run suicide mission like this one, and braver than any tetramand he'd ever spoken to before. So here he was—a simple medic—running against a charge, outnumbered, outgunned, in a manner of speaking, and generally outclassed. But...even if he fell today...even if he never felt the warm morning sun or the chilling evening air on his dark orange skin ever again...he'd be alright with that...if only because he was following her.

A loud whistle somehow pierced the battle focused tetramands ears and even though they all kept in charging the medic and his leader stopped as something came crashing down from the sky and kicked up a cloud of dust so big you'd think one of the four moons had come down onto the planet.

Fortunately three tetramands saving their arms around had the very nice effect of clearing dust from the air...which meant everyone had the view of the also very oddly dressed tetramand that stood atop one of the scouts. He stood just over ten feet tall, so about average, and he wore black and white which wasn't odd in and of itself but the style of dress was...well otherworldly was possibly the best way to put it.

The other three scouts ran close to their friends and paused at the sight of this new tetramand rising and cracking his neck, his four golden eyes narrowed and he moved his left foot up and down as if testing the ground. He then looked down and his shoulders slouched, a chuckle shook his shoulders as he stepped off the scout he'd landed upon and with just one arm he pulled the twitching body up to his feet.

"Sorry about that, can't really control landings all that well. You alright?" He asked casually as if this was some common occurrence.

He received a low moan before the scout fell over with drool running out the corner of his mouth, one of his tusks appeared broken and his thorny skin seemed pale. The newcomer turned to look at the medic and his leader and gave them a shrug before turning back to the remaining five scouts. The medics leader was about to call out in warning but even before he fully turned around one of his arms moved like a storm bolt and grabbed the spear that was about to stab into his exposed side. His gloved hand tightened around the shaft near the spear point. The iron wood creaked under the pressure and the air seemed to grow cold as the newcomer slowly turned his head to fully face the scout that had attempted to murder him.

"That wasn't very sporty." Was what he said before he ripped the spear from the dark maroon skinned tetramands hand and spartan kicked him into a cliff a hundred and seventy yards away.

The remaining four gaped until finally their senses returned to them and they readied their respective weapons. Another spear wielder reared his and threw it with enough force that the sand below it was moved apart as it made its way toward the newcomer who remained still as stone until he swung his stolen spear and smacked the weapon out of the air. His scowl was predatory as he stalked forward.

The now weaponless one growled and charged arms readied for grappling only for his target to spin the spear around so that the shaft point out and then he rammed the dull staff into the poor scouts abdomen, the air escaped his as he clutched his sunken midsection and all awareness of the world outside banished as he choked on nothing, only for a moment before he was backhanded into the dirt and stomped upon.

The two remaining scouts shared a look before turning and readying to jump away, just as one was ready to ascend the stolen spear dug into his thigh, it stabbed clean through. His pained yell echoed over the desert as he fell to the ground clutching the wounded leg. His fellow scout was torn for a long second before he chose to abandon his comrade, though he hesitated for too long, the newcomer had charged in and gotten the final scout in a headlock, the two muscular arms perfectly cradled his head in a way for optimum pressure to the air way, all four of the scouts hands clawed and scratched at his assailant to a futile effort and after a long moment the scout was unconscious.

The newcomer dropped him to the ground and looked back to the medic and his leader.

The change was sudden, like a brief darkness that had come over him had vanished. His smile could fool anyone who had not just witnessed what he had done.

June 21st, 2005, 11:56

Gwen looks over a slumbering Kevin resting in Ben's bunk before looking toward the front to see an unusually stoic Grandpa Max gripping the wheel with both hands and a very set jaw with set eyes and she didn't ignore the fact that were breaking the posted speed limit by a not so marginal amount.

But all of this was ignorable and all around less annoying than the fact that Mandy was all too happy to accept this as common place and sit at the table reading a book—her book—while unconsciously picking and pulling at the tight fabric of the blue top and jeans—her blue top and jeans.

Gwen stood and hastily made her way to the table lest some accident happen or Max suddenly swerved without warning. Again. The blonde gives her a look from the corner of her eye before returning to the book with a slowly growing air of boredom.

"I want you to break up with Ben." Gwen says she is not sure where it comes from. She is not sure why that's what she chose to start with. But it's the first thing she's said to Mandy with an absolute air of command and left no room for back talk. Only now does she recall first meeting the girl and seeing the chance for friendship. How quickly that had vanished.

"No."

Gwen seems floored by the simple response. She had felt so certain of herself, so commanding. But Mandy just proved how worthless her words could be. But what really threw her off was how casually Mandy denied her. The girl hadn't even looked up from the book she clearly wasn't interested in, she hadn't sounded hesitant in her reply, and worst of all she spoke with ten times the power and command that Gwen had.

Clearing her throat Gwen tried again, "You aren't—"

The book slams closed this time, cutting Gwen off. The hard cover is set gently on the table and Mandy turns to face Gwen. Their eyes meet and despite the gentle facade Mandy wears Gwen can feel the looming weight behind that stare.

"Let me stop you there. You, Gwenny, do not know me. And from what I've seen over our admittedly short time together. You know Ben even less. So keep your lectures to yourself."

Gwen can feel the warmth come from the three charms on her arm brace. She can feel whatever it was she felt when she confronted Phil come to life deep inside. And it scares her. She feels her control waver, it bends against the urge to just...lose control. To let that power solve the cause of her headache. But that wouldn't really solve anything, even if it felt great no feeling that fear for a moment.

She breathes in deeply through her nose before raising her arm and showing off the charms.

"Ben gave these to me. He has faith in me. What do you have?"

Mandy snickers, "I'm so happy you feel important Gwen. Ben likes you and Max, and the fact that his little gift to you has given you all this undo confidence would make him proud." She says equal parts confident and sarcastically. Gwen isn't sure which part is authentic or not.

Ju'Nai 7th, 103rd Year of Kallar, 14:40

Four-Arms latches the final strap of the forearm guard. His chest bare except for a black bandolier with a shoulder guard on his left and a tattered back cape that barely reached the small of his back that covered his right pectoral, twin side thigh guards, and silvery ankle and wrist guards with a large sword strapped to his back. Looking over his shoulder he saw the two other Tetramands were still there just staring at him.

"Well you haven't attacked me yet, so you might as well introduce yourselves."

The two look between themselves and Four-Arms instantly notices the tiny differences. The taller of them is female, she wears more furs and leathers and straps than any of the others he's seen and has smooth black hair with uneven ends. Her four eyes are pale blue, and a scar travels down from her temple to her bottom lip. She was taller than him, fourteen feet tall at most, or four-hundred and twenty six odd centimeters if he got his conversions right. Her arms, all four of them, are bare excluding the dark cloth bandage wraps around the palms and wrist. She has twin blades attached to her hips and a triple set of javelins slung to her back. The most seemingly pointless trinket she had was a golden buckle she wore on her bandolier, a solid gold ring with red ruby like gems set all along its rim.

Beside her stood possibly the shortest tetramand he'd ever seen. Just over eight feet, a runt if ever there was one. He was scrawny, and looked meek from a distance if only barely. He bore his upper torso to the world but his biceps and forearms were wrapped tightly in beige gauze, and he wore an old looking fur loincloth with a studded leather belt. His legs were also bare except for the left one that had many metal rods piercing it, leaving him unsure if it was a decorational or a mandatory procedure. Attached to the belt were several pouches the contents of which are unclear at a glance. His skin also differed, a dark orange opposed to much more common red one could see on ninety-eight percent of the Tetramands population.

As if coming out of their stupor the female turned to the short one and pointed behind them, where Four-Arms only now took note of the fallen, as the small one moved to check on his fellows he removed a small stone trinket from one of the pouches that emitted a dark blue light, it brought back distant hazy memories of seeing similar tools in use by field medics that were very under supplied and unprepared. Though he didn't get much time to think about this as the tall woman was making her way over to him, slowly and non threateningly.

"Greetings offworlder, I am Themyscira; leader of the Rebels." Her introduction was scarce and wanting for deeper details but he relented that should the roles be reversed he'd offer little as well.

"Names Arbet. Wanna tell me what I just got in the middle of?"

Themyscira simply laughs at the poor tetramand for a long moment, finding his ignorance regarding their planet's situation equally funny and troubling. Just how many more offworlders littered the stars unaware of the strife that plagued the mother world?

Arbet didn't say much as he watched the tall woman laugh at his question before her delight ran dry leaving only a simmering ember of worry and fear. She stares into his golden eyes for a long moment. Her gaze turning over her shoulder to the slow moving medic checking on the fallen. She couldn't help but wonder if it weren't for this offworlders timely intrusion, would she still be breathing at this moment? Some deep dark part of her mind whispered that yes she would still be breathing. Breathing the stale air from behind bars while she awaited punishment...or worse.

"Greetings to you Arbet, I am most pleased to inform you that thanks to your actions the Rebel forces remain to fight another day."

That catches his attention, like a comet streaking across blackest sky, he's caught in her words. She goes on to tell him of the hardships that have befallen their people. She tells of the civil war that came when the overlord and overlordess came to blows and were met with a stalemate. Her story captures it all. The three months of drawn out battles in the royal colosseum, ninety-three fights had taken place. And ninety-three times those fights ended in deadlock.

The overlord Khorro' Khan, great grandson to the even greater Kakarot Khan whose lineage was still ruling the planet, was a sensible one, he split the planet and gave half to his equal. But the overlordess Korra Kain was stubborn, and demanded more fights to prove herself greater. He declined any further waste of his time and simply told her to be off, partially saddened by the loss of his love. But he couldn't keep her at his side if she had the potential to grow better. The fights didn't stop, for of course they would not. The tribes scattered across the great sand plains were less than pleased to hear of their new leadership and attempted coups and such frail attempts at gaining independence for their respective tribes, but one by one over the course of four years the tribes were culled and the planet now truly divided. Supporters of Korra claimed that the Tetramands had lost their way. Their structures once a simplistic beauty, and battles a testament to strength of body, mind and spirit. While those in favor of Khorro believed in advancement. Greater feats of engineering and purpose behind their struggle. A fight would always be a fight. But a fight with purpose beyond oneself would always hold more weight.

Arbet had learned all of this from Themyscira, he had listened intently and even offered his aid in moving their injured back to the camp. The day had gone, and night was now upon them. He had the pleasure of meeting Themyscira obviously, she had even extended him the courtesy of referring to her as Themy, he'd spoken to the kind doctor Swuall, apparently he was the sixth best doctor currently on Khoros. Quite the feat considering what They had claimed many the doctors under Khorro to be capable of. He'd also learned doctors following Korra were far more…primal in their practice. A pinch of crushed herbs, some smelling salts, air essence, they were closer to being called shamans than actual doctors.

That aside he'd talked to a few of the injured, Kquell, Ginggur, Du' Kisen, were the most interesting seeing as they were triplets, their story of the tribe being taken over by Korra's raiding bands was already enough to sway him away from her cause, add it to everything else he's heard and he'd not look twice if someone gunned her down in her own throne room.

His upper left arms came up and dragged itself across his mouth, the rations Themy offered weren't much to write home about—not that he could mind you—but they quenched his thirst and sated his hunger so that was a plus. His four golden eyes shimmered slightly as they caught the campfires light. With a groan he rose from his place by the warmth and moved to the edge of camp, Swuall and Themy quickly came to him, partially worried, and generally hesitant to let their newest arrival depart. They were trusting, not stupid.

"Arbet, where do you head?" Themy asked, mentally preparing herself to lunge after the tetramand should he make a run for it; though somewhere deep in her mind she questioned if she could actually stop him.

Arbet crossed his four arms as his head tilts up to the stars, "I've been away from home for too long, and the last time I vanished like this...well, I'd rather just say it ended pretty poorly."

Swuall seemed to finally find his voice as he asked, "And to where will you head? You mentioned your ship crashing and being seemingly beyond repair! How will you get off world?"

The Omnitrix wielder uncrossed his arms, he didn't have any form that could cross the distance in a reasonable amount of time so he had come up with a plan B of sorts.

"I'm going to move inward toward the heart of Khorro's territory and hope to find a vessel preparing to leave."

It was mostly true, though if he couldn't actually find anyone ready to leave, he figured he'd just steal one...not very hero like but he felt anxious being away from Earth without any way to communicate.

He smiled at the group of rebels. They reminded him a bit of the plumbers from his time, the way they banded together fighting for their beliefs. But then it struck him.

"You seem to support Khorro, why not join up with him?"

Themyscira looked away, seemingly hurt by the question. Her jaw was set tightly as her fist trembled at her side. Her body trembled from a seemingly unknown urge to act.

Swuall simply looked sullen, "She was a General for Korra, but she abandoned the overlordess after she had been order to assign a hunting party to a death run."

The tall female tetramand glared at the doctor, he was telling a story not his own, and she would not allow it!

"What right have you!?" She began, turning to fully face him ready to act upon her rage—however misplaced it seemed.

A hand landed on her shoulder, her head whipped around and found Arbet holding her. His fingers tightly gripping her shoulder pauldron.

"I shouldn't have pried, but curiosity got the better of me. Don't take out your frustrations on Swuall."

She trembled, not from fear but rage; not a hot anger at the outworlder but at herself.

She pulled herself free before looking hesitantly at her trusted ally, shame filled before she bowed her head to the tetramand and once to the newcomer, she had many thou ck tango deal with now.

As she left Swuall gave Arbet a sad smile and wished him well before returning to his camp duties.

But just as everyone in the camp was starting to find themselves in their own heads a bright green flag drew their eyes. Where once had stood a tall and proud warrior was now a lean kineceleran, and all the armour Arbet had taken from his earlier encounter lay scattered at the blue creatures feet. It's narrow head turned to them before it's black lips climbed up to make a smile before the faceplate slammed shut and it sped off into the rocky desert toward the capital.

June 21st, 2005, 13:39

Mandy looked over her shoulder, Kevin was still passed out, Gwen was ignoring her, and after pulling up to an abandoned oil rig Max had disappeared into the rust bucket's restroom.

The day had been hectic, breaking into a museum to steal a small mask with odd gems for eyes only to be confronted by knights of all things and then robbed by those jerks.

Her fingers picked at the clothes she was wearing, Gwen had been gracious enough to lend her a shirt and pants while she waited for her mother to send some new clothes to her, but the colors suited her poorly, the shirt was tight in the sleeves, chest, and the neckline was a tad scratchy, plus the hem of the shirt left her middle exposed a bit more than she felt any eleven year old should really show. The pants were better in that they fit just a little looser, though they ended an inch and two quarters from her ankle so…

Her musings were cut off as Max exited the restroom in...a blue and black jumpsuit with a utility belt?

"You kids stay here, I need to stop this."

And there it was, the ever intriguing but so immensely useless 'this' as if simply saying it as your primary descriptor rendered all need for context null. It would have driven her up a wall in most cases. But fortunately someone else was ready to make themselves the fool in her stead.

"'This' what exactly? You've been saying that everytime I ask for over an hour!"

Mandy was ready to see the soft and hurt look come over Max, she reasoned he cared deeply for his grandchildren. The man had a big—bleeding—heart. But to her surprise no, he remained just as cold and calculating as a certain other Tennyson she knew.

"Gwen, what's going on right now has no place for kids playing hero, so stay here." He said before leaving the recreation vehicle and moving toward a shack in the distance.

The man might have been old, but he was plenty agile as he crossed the distance as quickly as someone had his age, but Mandy turned back to the fiery haired girl standing near the comatose Kevin.

"So that's it?" Mandy asked, resting her cheek on the palm of her hand.

Gwen said nothing, but her eyes betrayed her as they glanced at the girl from the corner of her vision. Mandy took it as a sign to continue.

"You Have those fancy rocks, he has his special little toys, and whatever is going on is enough to put him into auto soldier mode. Don't you think he needs the help?"

Gwen turned, confused, "Help him how, you heard why he said, this is no place for kids…" she cut herself off. Her tone had been growing bitter the closer she got to those words, and the anger brewing inside was making her irrational.

"Has that stopped Benny once this whole summer? He stopped so many things that he had no business in, he wasn't playing hero. He is a hero." Gwen took note of the way Mandy spoke about her doofus cousin, the almost warm tone she had when it involved him, "So stop moping and show him you aren't playing! You're Lucky Girl!"

Gwen felt her cheeks flush, the more she though about it, the more that name embarrassed her, but...for once...Mandy was right.

Smiling Gwen reaches behind her, pulls open a drawer, and removes from within a violet colored mask and dawns the cat like face cover before sprinting out of the RV. Leaving Mandy to stare at the remaining stones not equipped to the brace in the girl's arm.

For some reason Gwen could only use three stones at a time unlike Hex who could use them all. It was good for thought for certain, but before that…

Her fingers wrapped around the nearest stone talisman and her thumb glided over the carvings on its face. So many questions. So little time.

Ju'Nai 8th, 103rd Year of Kallar, 05:31

The speedy kineceleran has come to regret his choice very quickly. He was making progress yes, but his thighs, calves, knees, feet, basically his entire lower half felt dead despite his work to increase his stamina and endurance. He'd been so focused on his exhaustion that when the dial in his chest suddenly flashed yellow it ruined his focus and he missed the protruding bone or rock in the sand that sent him flying just as he was approaching the gates.

His body spread through the air much too fast and he acted on instincts to prevent harm or undo pain to himself and changed form to Diamondhead just in time to smash through the gates with a thunderous clang of metal and the slowly rising cloud of dust. His rocklike body bounced on the sand a few times before he skidded to a stop at the feet of a grey skinned alien in a yellow suit with a white cape and eyes. The same alien looked down at him with a raised eye ridge. Clearly surprised.

June 21st, 2005, 13:56

Gwen looked over her shoulder into the seemingly bottomless hole, where her grandfather clung to the ring for dear life while she floated leisurely above it with two burning hot flames in each hand, her gaze moved toward the odd guardian the Forever Knights seemed to be controlling using that absolutely ancient sword. The hilt was simple enough, flat rounded end pommel with a sunken center, dark leather wrappings all along a presumably wooden handle, the cross guard was a very intricate golden stylized face of someone screaming with ruby eyes and a very wide mouth that had diamonds for teeth; and the pointed solid gold ears of a demon that went out in an upward sweep. And that was the very impressive base of the weapon seeing as the blade was simple steel that was chipped and rusted and seemingly ready to fall apart at the appearance of a strong gust of wind.

"You abilities are trivial girl, with this tool I shall be far in a way insurmountable!"

Gwen scoffed, if Ben were here right now the tin man's pretty moving statue would be dust already. But Ben wasn't here, and despite the mean things grandpa had said, and the rash way he acted...she wasn't going to let him get hurt!

Her hands extended forward and with a grunt of exertion the two burning balls in her hands combined and from them came rushing out a plume of flame so great it shone blue in places as it washed over the stone beast. She was able to maintain that level of output for a second, possibly a second and three quarters, before the flames died and she had to grunt in pain as she had rightly exerted herself. She knew she had a hard limit. She just wasn't sure where that limit really stood so far.

Her flight began to fade as she sunk to the floor, her sight obscured by the slowly retreating cloud of dust and smoke she had created.

What she saw was frightening. The beast was essentially no worse for wear but now his rock body was glowing a molten orange from the heat of her fire. Its roar echoed in the chamber as she bit back a sob, she was forcing something up from deep within her spent pools of power, drops were drops but in this case drops could mean the difference between life and death!

Fortunately despite her slow pull of her remaining mana the creature never reached it's mark as a bolt of lightning; an honest to goodness boot of white and purple tinged lightning! Struck the creature's leaping side and sent it flying with a boom. Both Gwen and The fancifully dressed Knight turned to see a sour looking Kevin holding his side with his left arm out with three fingers extended with the remaining two tucked into his palm overlapping one another. Behind him was a very pleased looking Mandy who had both hands on her hips.

At this point Max has pulled himself back up from the edge of the hole and was looking mighty pleased at his group of kids.

"Give up!" The knight cried out, and Gwen only now realized they hadn't caught his name yet, "The beast is mine! The weapon is mine! The power is all mine!" He shouted to great effect as he raised the blade high above his head, the steel corroding at a now visible rate as the gems eyes glowed intently.

The beast threw its head back and a cry of pain and hate reached them all as the creature clawed at its own face. The stone grinding against itself as chips of its slowly cooling surface came flying off. It looked as Kevin and began its rush at the boy.

The dark haired boy crouched with a pained wince and his hand went flat against the stone floor, his body being covered by the ancient earth. But fortunately for them they wouldn't have to see Kevin take a mad punch as Mandy extended a hand out and one of Gwen's charms flashed bright blue before unleashing a violent tornado. The heavy set creature stood no chance of holding ground as it was lifted straight off its feet and thrown across the large chamber.

Kevin turned to look at Mandy in time with Gwen as they saw the dark skinned girl had a fierce shut eating grin on her face as the magical item continued to glow. Gwen was furious that the brat had taken her charm! And that was assuming she had only taken the one…

"You dare touch me!"

They all turned as the Knight cried in disgust, Max had rushed him while they distracted the beast, and despite the Knight's size he seemed incapable of fending off Max.

Kevin would have happily waited for Max to punch the man's lights out, but he was still in pain and already sick of this, so the stone seemed to retreat from his hand as the sparks grew and danced across his fingers before he ran over to the two arguing old guys, his grip reached the Knight's thigh and a scream of pain echoed as a spasm shook his body, the high voltage just a bit too much for him.

Max ripped the blade free from his hand as he collapsed and threw it to the ground before smashing it with his foot.

They all turned to see the creature cry in agony before it's stone body began to crumble to dust.

Gwen sighed, exhaustion feeling all too much an extra hundred pounds in her shoulders. She couldn't wait for this to be over…

Ju'Nai 8th, 103rd Year of Kallar, 05:38

Ben looked between the three members of the newly minted Galactic Enforcers, Últimos, their leader. Tini the Tetramand, newest recruit and muscle. And Synaptak, the brains of the outfit. He had changed back to his human form to prove himself not of this world and request their aid in returning home.

Honestly he was quite lucky that they had showed up here to recruit their newest member Tini. He even if off mostly scot free for ruining the capitals gate when he crashed through. He wanted to say they were just being nice. But he understood not many sentients wanted to make enemies with the wielder of the Omnitrix. And so, just like that, his adventure on Khorros was coming to a close as he prepared to return home!

Or...so he thought...