Chapter Text
Revonnah is a majestic and beautiful planet with multiple suns. Its rugged terrain is dotted with farms that have been cut into the mountains like terraces, with orderly rows of crevices sliced into the rock for cultivation, broken up by silos and simple farmhouses. These hillside farms, operated by the Revonnahganders, yield one of the most remarkable plants in the universe: Amber Ogia. Even now, as the Liberty sailed through the void towards it, Rook’s mind was awash with where the third piece of the Map of Infinity could be on his home planet. He had no idea where Paradox could’ve hidden it, which puts them at a disadvantage even before they arrive.
“So… we’ve seen your planet on the holos. It’s really pretty.”
“I agree, Marinette. Revonnah is one of the jewels of the universe. Hmm, although perhaps I am biased, as it IS my home planet…” And then his human partner came strolling into the cabin.
“I probably feel the same way about Earth, most of us probably do. Bias might not be the worst thing in the universe in the grand scheme of things. But I digress. Anarka’s just received an SOS from the surface. I think you’re going to want to see it.” This quickly caught Rook’s attention and he leapt upwards.
(scene break)
“Aye, thank goodness you arrived when you did, Blonko. I’d have sent Luka to howl through the walls otherwise!”
“That would likely prove unnecessary, Ms Couffaine. I would have come anyway at the mention of my planet.”
“Yeah, yeah, patriotism is great, yah, yah, yah! Haven’t we got something to show Rook?” Anarka nodded and hit play…
“To any passing spacecraft in orbit around Revonnah, this is Sheriff Rick-Dan Wat-Senn of the Plumbers requesting immediate backup! Rook Da is in critical condition, the mysterious perpetrators of these continued Taydenite attacks have seen to that! The resulting Muroid migrations are driving people from their homes in unprecedented quantities! I repeat, any passing spacecraft…!” The message was immediately cut off with a loud smash. Ben and Rook looked at each other uneasily.
“That’s every bit as alarming as it was the first time. And obviously there’s the Rook Da factor as well…” Rook’s expression turned gravely worried.
“Father…” He whispered to himself, as Ben placed a comforting hand onto his shoulder.
“I’m sorry about your dad, Rook. I know how much he means to you.”
“I appreciate that, Ben, thank you.” The Miraculers turned to look at Rook, some confused, some worried, and all eager to make a start on investigating. There might still be time to save Rook’s father if they hurry…
(scene break)
Upon landing, Cat and Alix insisted on forming their scouting patrol. Their super speed meant they could work out where the Muroids were coming from in double time. Then came a rapid beeping from Rook’s Proto-Tool. An indication of some pretty major activity nearby. It could be Muroids, or it could be the perpetrators of these attacks. Either way, it begged closer investigation. Rook took charge of the party as they embarked. Already they got a hit, Muriod tracks leading in the general direction of the mountains. Plausibly a base of operations for the culprits. Possibly even the one Fistrick used during his scheme to harvest Amber Ogia for his own diabolical purposes. Cat and Alix offered to investigate. They were back in less than a second, to confirm, yes, there was something going on in the mountains, a definite base of operations for the criminals responsible for these Taydenite attacks. That makes it worth investigating on the double…
(scene break)
The caves were dimly lit and likewise difficult to traverse. Even Ben using Eye Guy’s enhanced optic options wasn’t much help. Exactly how long it took to reach the location that Fistrick previously used for a lair was uncertain, it could have been a couple of hours or multiple days. But eventually, their efforts were rewarded, as they came into a cavern containing a very specific type of machine. A twisted fusion of the cloning machine Ma Vreedle used to drain Earth’s oceans, and the hacking machine Kevin used in a failed attempt to hack the Omnitrix, with a large scoop-like chute for Amber Ogia at the back and a ray gun on the front resembling a DNAlien freeze gun. Naturally Ben and Rook silently agreed this must be the cause of all this. It resembles no farming machine on Revonnah that Rook had ever seen, and farmers on Revonnah typically prefer more primitive methods of cultivating crops anyway. This was obviously the work of an off-worlder, someone with a specific plan for the Amber Ogia that Revonnah cultivates. But who could gain anything from this? Then, before anyone could react, a mysterious figure landed in a classic superhero pose behind them, catching Tetrax’s attention. The rest quickly turned around as well, as the figure shot upwards, edging into the dim light. An armoured figure, his feet were hooved. He had purple pads covering his central joints, a belt, and four central lines on his helmet to provide outlines for his face, which were his eyes and mouth. His attention quickly fixated on Tetrax, remembering their history together, and he barked something in a strange alien language.
“A pleasantly long time at that, SixSix!”
“You know this guy?”
“Long story short, Kim, Vilgax once hired SixSix here to recover the Omnitrix for him. Alongside Kraab and Tetrax in fact. I won, of course. SixSix has been itching to even the score ever since.” The Sotoraggian mercenary in question immediately drew his blasters. Ben quickly readied to transform, before the trademark chattering of a large number of creatures caught the ensemble’s attention. Oh perfect…(!) These guys…
“Rook, get ready! We’ve got trouble!”
“Exactly, Ben! These creatures are a race we’ve met before, and commonly employed lackies of one particular criminal…” Before Rook could finish, said Detrovite criminal came into view, atop the machine that was presumably responsible for those Muroid migrations. The machine which was sampling Amber Ogia…
“Who dares intrude on the lair of the... ohh, not you again.”
“Unknown target, eh Ben? So you do know him!”
“Vulkanus? Yes Alix, we know him. We don't like him though.”
“The feeling is mutual, destroy them!” And so the heroes quickly found themselves surrounded by the pickaxe aliens and their mining machines…
“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on, we didn’t even know you were here!”
“Cat’s right. And by the way, why ARE you here?” SixSix said something in his native language, which only Rook, Tetrax, Vilgax and Vulkanus were able to understand.
“I’m sure the Kineceleran would like to know, that’s why she asked the question! Urgh… long story short, Tennyson, I trust you’re aware of my… how shall I say this…? …fondness for Taydenite?”
“Given you’ve previously been all too happy to kill me over minuscule amounts of it, yeah, I know it!” Vulkanus ignored him and continued.
“Then again, they DO say actions speak louder than words…” He turned back to the squad of his minions operating the machine’s controls. “Pick one of them! At random! And fire!” His minions nodded as the machine began to charge a shot. Tetrax pushed his way forwards to shield the group, knowing his reflective crystal body could be the best defence against whatever Vulkanus’s weapon does… The shot fired out, striking Tetrax in the chest and refracting off of it behind him. Kim and Rose failed to dodge quickly enough and were both immediately struck, instantly freezing into Taydenite statues.
“ROSE!!!” Juleka’s horrified screech turned into a scream of fear for herself as the machine immediately recharged and blasted her as well, and she couldn’t react in time to turn intangible to protect herself, so she instantly froze into a Taydenite statue as well. The Sotoraggian mercenary gave a screech of content.
“I agree, SixSix, these results are satisfactory. If this keeps up, we’ll be able to destroy anyone who gets in our way and make enough money to set us up for life!” He gave a wicked chuckle before continuing. “I might as well explain, Tennyson. You remember those freeze guns the DNAliens were using to construct weather machines for the Highbreed? Yeah well, after you thwarted their invasion of Earth, DNAlien numbers dropped dramatically and there was an awful lot of their freeze guns lying around. Dirt cheap, you know. I ordered them by the bucketload, see if I could find some use for them. And now I have the perfect solution, for what to do with all those guns AND for how to make some money when Taydenite’s in short supply! SixSix and I have been building this baby for months – the Taydenite Decimation Cannon! One shot transmutes whatever it hits into pure Taydenite, the rarest, most precious gem in the galaxy! Perfect answer to when I need some quick cash! Only downside is the Amber Ogia residue needed to give that mysterious crystal inside the engine the necessary kick to power it. But that ain’t so bad, this stinking planet has all the Amber Ogia I could ever need to power the cannon! And of course, this here’s only a prototype. Pretty soon I’ll have an improved version in the works. The perfect thing to turn your miserable wasteland of a home planet into my own private garden of Taydenite!”
“You don’t seriously think I’m going to let you get away with this?”
“Frankly, no. Not that you’ll have anything to say about it for very long! Target Ben Tennyson and fire!” Wasting no time, Ben quickly activated the Omnitrix once more…
“Ball Weevil! Ok, I was going for Lodestar, but this’ll do just fine!” He quickly spat into action, secreting his trademark green plasma into a ball which he quickly leapt onto. The remaining Miraculers seemed unsure of what he was looking to do here, but Rook knew it all too well. The pint-sized puke bowler dashed forwards, his energy ball growing in size dramatically as it bowled through the waves of Vulkanus’s henchmen, before finally shooting it out aimed directly for the Detrovite criminal. Fortunately for him, SixSix zoomed in front of him at the last moment, taking the full bunt of the blast for him. He landed expertly as the smoke cleared: the explosion wasn’t strong enough to completely incapacitate him, although it was enough to shatter his black and pink mask, revealing the ugly, mutant, gray-yellow creature with pink and gray robotic eyes and four arms inside. He gave a vile screech as the Miraculers winced in revulsion.
“Indeed. That is unnerving even for a mutant Sotoraggian…” Rook was quickly cut off by another moment of screeching from SixSix. Almost everyone looked to him as if he could translate. Rook held his hands up as Tetrax clarified what SixSix just said doesn’t translate well. At which point the Miraculers leapt into action, each eager to avenge their fallen and get back on track for their quest for the Map of Infinity. Immediately Tetrax shot out a barrage of crystal fragments at SixSix, presumably to make him focus on him, which might well have been a valid option. If Tetrax can lure SixSix away from the action, that’s one less problem the others have to worry about. The Sotoraggian mercenary immediately responded by activating his jetpack and zooming out of range, before barrelling into Tetrax at high speed, propelling them both further into the caverns.
“Alright, one down, too many to go!”
“Well, if you’ve got any ideas for tactics, mi’ladybug…”
“WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT CHATON!!!” Ladybug did not get long to rage before her moment of distraction proved sufficient for Vulkanus’s minions to take advantage. Right before Cat’s eyes, she took a blast to the chest and froze into a Taydenite statue.
“LADYBUG!!!” Cat’s screams were echoed by the rest of the Miraculers, who quickly focused on Vulkanus himself. “Oh, you’re so going to pay for that!” Both he and Alix zoomed forwards, their enhanced super-speed ever increasing, much like Ball Weevil was doing with his bile balls, until both leapt at Vulkanus and started kicking his head rapidly. Due to his injuries, Vulkanus wears a robotic suit to make up for his small size. As such, his head was currently the only part of him to retain feeling. His continued grunts of pain quickly got his minions’ attention, leading to a rapid recharge and discharge of the Taydenite Decimation Cannon. Too preoccupied with fighting Vulkanus to notice, Alix was the one who failed to dodge in time, somewhat paradoxically as her current species is way faster than Cat’s, and was subsequently petrified. Immediately afterwards Cat called for Cataclysm and dashed forwards… right into another discharge and meeting the same fate.
“Ah. Some people are complete dumbos… Well, this is unfortunate. Guess I’d better puke it up!” Unleashing his current bile ball at Vulkanus’s weapon, the resulting explosion only managed to blast a few of his minions off it. Which is actually beneficial, because it hadn’t showcased anything like an autopilot mode yet. So as long as Vulkanus doesn’t utilise them himself, they should be fine. Indeed he didn’t, he instead ordered more of his minions forwards, pickaxes drawn and ready for combat.
“Ok, running the numbers, we are increasingly outnumbered.” That didn’t stop Max opening his shell up and firing an electric blast to slow them down. Nath’s prehensile bandages certainly helped as well.
“If you’d like to change that, mind I remind you Echo Echo can duplicate?” A little embarrassed he didn’t work that out sooner, Luka split into dozens of identical clones, all of which began a Wall of Sound that quickly forced a retreat from the enemy. And which played havoc with Rook’s Proto-Tool. And everyone’s ears, thanks to the enclosed space they found themselves. It actually reached such a level that Ball Weevil himself was forced to silence them by hitting the original with a bile ball, instantly reverting the duplication process. Of course, it then transpired that Vulkanus’s minions were simply retreating to the safety of the cannon’s controls. Just as he got back to his feet, and just as he was about to duplicate again, he met the same fate as his sister. Vulkanus gave a sinister laugh as he pointed towards the remaining three Miraculers. Nath opted to whip his tendrils around himself all at once to create a tornado attack to upheave the TDC before it could fire again. Yet due to its intense weight, the tornado he generated was nowhere near strong enough, and he got hit before he could separate his body to dodge. “Ok, this is getting troublesome, Vulkanus! I’d better take this down before you do any permanent harm!”
“Not so likely there, Tennyson! Minions! Target the Insectoid and fire!” The TDC began to charge up its devasting payload, the target locking onto Ball Weevil like a missile, before firing out that teal blast of evil…
“BEN!!! NOOOOO!!!!” How fortunate for his partner and Max taking the bullet for him. Both were instantly petrified. That was the final straw for Ball Weevil. But before he could make a move, the TDC fired again.
“Ha ha ha ha ha! Now you’ve become the only good type of Tennyson, Tennyson! A DEAD ONE!!!” But in his moment of triumph, Vulkanus had overlooked something. The transformative powers of the Omnitrix. Ben cunningly reverted to human form just prior to being hit, and then retransformed into Ball Weevil, giving him more space to work with then he otherwise would have had. His eyes scanned over the cavern. Vilgax and Ivan were the only two, besides Tetrax, who’d not been petrified. It’s all down to them now… and then another tremendous rumbling shook the cavern, as another monstrous blow from Vilgax was blocked by Vulkanus, withstanding similar attacks from Ivan in his larger form. It seemed pretty likely if this continues, a cave-in beyond even Armadrillo’s digging capabilities would occur and burry them alive. So, this needs to be dealt with quickly. But how to stop Vulkanus from using that thing without…? Then the answer quickly came to him. He slammed the Omnitrix symbol on his neck brace…
“Gravattack! Pretty dope!” Vulkanus clearly didn’t think so.
“A Galilean, Tennyson? Really? You are desperate, I’ve seen Atrocians withstand more of a walling than those piles of rubble and magma!”
“I’m told Atrocians are borderline indestructible, so that’s not such a good comparison!” Vulkanus simply snarled and backflipped to the Taydenite Decimation Cannon’s controls, priming a direct shot at Gravattack’s core. That would be bad news if it hits. It would cause him to enter meltdown and explode, which could be dangerous enough to destroy the whole area he is in, and the cavern seems unstable enough as it is. The blast fired, but Gravattack’s gravity powers managed to suspend the blast before it hit him. That’s some time they’ve garnered. But there’s only so long Gravattack can sustain it before the Omnitrix times out. So… options…?
“If you’re willing to listen, I’d recommend smashing that thing!”
“And how, dinosaur brain, do you propose we do that? Without getting too close, I mean!”
“Hmm… I might have an idea… Vulkanus said it needs Amber Ogia residue to work, right?” Ivan quickly took a rocket punch to the face as the Detrovite criminal turned his attention towards them.
“Actually, you’re off your rocker. What I said was the Amber Ogia residue is needed to give that mysterious crystal inside the engine the necessary kick to power it.” He trailed off, quickly realising what he’d just given away. “Ah… probably shouldn’t have said that… Oh well, ain’t much you can do about that, you can barely move for Amber Ogia on this planet!”
“I think I get what you are implying, though. Given the volatility of the fruit in question, if we were to cause some form of reaction…”
“…it would destroy the Amber Ogia and cut off the weapon’s power supply! Great idea, Vilgax!” Immediately Gravattack sideflipped into his ball form, ramping up the power of his orbit powers and whipping Vulkanus’s energy blast around himself at high speed… “let’s see how that stuff works on Amber Ogia!”
“Oh no, I know what you’re trying to do, Tennyson! Don’t you dare…!” Recognizing the danger, Vulkanus leapt upwards, desperately attempting to block the redirected energy beam… which didn’t work, as his armoured suit was rapidly encased in Taydenite, much to his frustration. “Urgh! Urgh! I’m stuck!”
“And so I guess it’s time to start smashing!” Just as Vilgax retracted the boost steroids on his arms, Ivan grew to a much larger size and swung his now armoured tail at the frozen Vulkanus, as Vilgax delivered an earth-shattering punch which reverberated throughout the entire cavern. It was clear Vilgax was incredibly strong, even for his species, as was Ivan, as the combination of their attacks was enough to shatter Vulkanus’s Taydenite encased suit into smithereens, leaving his true form, resembling an infant wearing a white diaper while retaining his regular head, scrawled out on his back, unable to right himself. “Ok… I’ve got to be honest, I was not expecting this.” Ivan muttered.
“Detrovites are typically much larger and more muscular.” Vilgax agreed.
“Urgh… Tennyson’s fault on both counts! Threw me into an iron mine with Element X! Look what it did to me! And that’s going to be another so many years my regeneration’s going to be delayed thanks to you!” Leaving Vulkanus to let out his rage, Ivan and Vilgax leapt aboard the Taydenite Decimation Cannon, looking for the power supply on the back. There’s obviously some blender-like machine on the back to break down the Amber Ogia fruits into residue to power the crystal… aha, and there’s the maintenance hatch! Gravattack hovered over before reverting to Ben. He gave a look indicating they could proceed, which Vilgax did, reaching inwards to retrieve the special crystal Vulkanus and SixSix were using to power the thing. Moments after Vilgax removed the crystal, it reverted to its true form, a form everyone was quite happy to see.
“Another piece of the Map of Infinity! That certainly explains the power output. Wonder why Paradox chose to disguise it as a crystal here of all places?”
“Revonnah is a backwater planet, not unlike Earth. The only off-world visitors it gets are the ones who know about its special produce. To the untrained eye, there is nothing of any value to an off-worlder here. But because of that, it’s extremely useful if you have something to hide. Paradox is clearly smarter than I thought.”
“Yeah, yeah, real nice, squid-face, now the other big question – what are we going to do about the others? Look at them, they’re all statues!” Ben and Vilgax looked behind them, at the massive statuary of Taydenite figures, all perpetually frozen unless they think of something. The answer wasn’t easy to think up. Taydenite is borderline indestructible, so conventional gem cutting tools are automatically ruled out. In theory, anyway. Any of Ben’s aliens would be useless trying to free them, unless Diamondhead’s crystals are strong enough to cut Taydenite. Probably not because, as Tetrax explained earlier, despite the mineral and his species looking identical, Petrosapiens are not made of Taydenite and their crystals don’t have any real value. So this leaves Ben in a frustrating position. Ivan and Vilgax’s combined strength was enough to break Vulkanus’s Taydenite encased suit, but that was due to the suit supporting his tiny body. If Vulkanus was still at full size, that could have killed him. So it would be considerably risky to attempt that with the others. Not to mention Cat Noir was one of those encased in Taydenite, so even if Cataclysm does work on Taydenite, they wouldn’t be able to put it into practise. Or rather, that’s what they thought, until a sudden sound of matter disintegrating reached their ears. They looked at the statue of Cat Noir. His Cataclysm hand was glowing, and his Taydenite prison was evaporating!
“Urgh… that was weird…” He quickly shook off the doziness and assumed a battle stance. “Alright Vulkanus, here comes round two!”
“Battle’s over, kitty.” Ben pointed to the shattered remains of Vulkanus’s suit, which the pint-sized power-monger was still struggling to right himself in. “Vulkanus is down, and we’ve got the next piece of the Map. Mind you, still got SixSix to worry about… wonder how Tetrax is doing holding him off?”
(scene break)
Elsewhere in the caverns, the answer was ‘reasonably, at best’. Blow after blow was being traded as the Petrosapien warrior and the Sotoraggian mercenary continued their brawl. Tetrax instinctively blocked his face with his forearm as SixSix drove his energy buzzsaw into his crystalline flesh, immediately following up with a sudden kick to the gun as he whipped his twin laser pistols into his hands, barking something in his native language. He quickly opened fire, forcing Tetrax to generate a wall of crystals to protect himself. But SixSix was not discouraged. He quickly switched tactics to his lethal sonic weapon, effortlessly shattering the crystal wall and working its lethal magic on Tetrax himself, rapidly cracking him like an egg. Severely weakened, but unwilling to go down just yet, Tetrax worked up the energy to slowly edge forwards, centimetre by centimetre, until the Sotoraggian mercenary was within punching distance. He quickly got one in before the Sotoraggian mercenary slashed out in retribution with his energy whip. A dual block was scarcely enough to shield himself. But even now his durability was thinning. How fortunate for an unexpected occurrence. Before SixSix could react, a Chromastone laser suddenly shone directly through Tetrax’s crystal body, unleashing a laser powerful enough to send the Sotoraggian mercenary crashing backwards into a wall, setting off his jetpack and making him up rocket into the roof of the cavern triggering a cave in, burying the Sotoraggian mercenary under a mountain of rubble. Recognising the instability of the cavern, Tetrax wisely drew his hoverboard for a quick getaway.
(scene break)
So the battle was won and SixSix and Vulkanus were defeated, and now in Sheriff Rick-Dan Wat-Senn’s custody to await transfer into the custody of the Plumbers. The Miraculers too were returned to flesh and blood thanks to Cat’s quick thinking, Cataclysming each of his teammates back to normal over the course of several hours. Then, aboard the Liberty, just as Rook was finishing a modest farewell to his father, who had miraculously survived his encounter with the Taydenite Decimation Cannon, Paradox threw another twist into the tale.
“Congratulations, young Ben. Our quest is over. We are victorious.”
“Isn’t that a little premature, Paradox? We still have one more fragment of the Map to find.”
“That is true and false at the same time, Ladybug. For you see,” Paradox took something very particular out of his coat pocket, “while you were busy facing SixSix and Vulkanus, I took the liberty of guaranteeing our victory in the event of your possible defeat. The final shard of the Map of Infinity was located on Turrawuste. But you will notice I recovered it during your previous mission. Nathaniel and Kevin are on the hunt for a fake replica. With any luck, that should at least slow them down long enough for Plumber backup to surround the planet and cut off their escape… Meaning we can now probably relax.”
“Yeah, just got to stop you there, are you forgetting the fact our planet’s stuck in an alternate dimension?”
“Kim’s right, we need to sort that out. Quick style. Anarka! It’s hometime.”
(scene break)
“Seven hours digging across this wasteland, here we are.” Nate gave an evil smirk as he took the piece of the Map from Kevin.
“It is mine! The final piece of the Map of Infinity! Barring the one on Revonah of course, but that can wait! Whoever succeeds in merging these four pieces together shall be granted a power that can change reality! And rule the universe!” Then he noticed something wrong with the "Map”. "Dah! THIS CANNOT BE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KEVIN ETHAN LEVIN! That sly Paradox tricked you! This is a fake Map piece made out of salt dough!!!”
“Wha…?” Kevin looked closer at the map piece, only to confirm Nate’s declaration. “Oh… that’s annoying!”
“That is irritating.”
“That’s annoying! And what’s worse – Tennyson hasn’t shown up all day! He probably went to Revonnah! That’s two pieces we’ve lost! Urgh… fist shaking time, methinks…” Kevin was of course, naturally unprepared for what Nate, obviously working hard to control his emotions, did next.
“No, Kevin.”
“WHAT?! But they’ve got half the Map now, and it’s useless without the other half, aren’t you furious?!”
“Yes… but I have a plan…”