Kuroko was shifting over printed file after printed file. She didn't know how long she could hold up. She needed coffee
"Hey Kuroko, did you know that Upchuck has a tongue for each of its four stomachs?"
Kazari had come back from her exchange student program, she wore a new set of flowers in her short black hair and was positively enthusiastic about reading everything on Ben's alien forms.
Kuroko sighed,"Kazari, we are trying to find out where those bastards took Sissy and Ben, we are not starting an encyclopedia on alien life forms."
"I know, but this all just so fascinating though." Kazari said as she typed away on her trusty computer. "To think that all these guys are actually living on some far away planet. I mean it could cause us to rethink everything about life-"
"Kazari!" Kuroko snapped. "Two people are in mortal danger, one of them is our friend and the other one saved that friend from a freaking alien terminator, and all you are doing is talking about Upchucks tongues, Wildmutts quills, and ChromaStone's darn hard skin!!"
Kazari went silent and began typing silently on her computer. Kuroko sighed, Kazari had a good heart, she hadn't really been slacking. As it so happened Kazari was a brilliant multi tasker. Kuroko would apologize later, she needed to focus on finding Sissy and Ben.
"Found them!" Kazari said.
"Eeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!??????"
Kazari pointed to her computer screen which showed security cameras for the airport. Ben and Mikoto were shown just getting off a flight with what appeared to be a nun, a priest, and Tsuchimikado Motoharu.
"Eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????"
Kuroko jumped out of her desk and ran to the door.
" Kuroko, where are you going!?"
"Where do you think? I'm going to the airport to find out what the heck is going on!!!"
After Ben had gone Brainstorm and taken down the main terrorist, Brainstorm had moved on to disable the last bomb. As it turned out, Brainstorm was a match for Grey Matter when it came to mental capability. Brainstorm had then moved on out of the cargo hold and took down the rest of the terrorists. Brainstorm then used his powerful intellect to pilot the plane all the way to France( the pilot was out cold in the kitchen). Mikoto and Tsuchimikado had helped with the piloting ( Brainstorm's pincers weren't very good when it came to fiddling with knobs and buttons) while Stiyl and Agnese had worked up a memory spell to ensure that the passengers wouldn't think they were being saved by a giant electric brain crab. So though nobody knew about Ben's alien powers, Mikoto and Ben were still regarded as heroes on that flight. As a result, they were refunded for their entire flight and were also bumped up to first class on their transfer flight. After they made it to France, Ben found a Mr. Smoothie in the airport's food court and Tsuchimikado went off to make a few calls. By the time Ben was sipping his third grasshopper berry, Tsuchimikado had come back to the round table where the entire party was seated.
"Looks like that wasn't a random terrorist group, it seems like they were grunts from the Fist of Cthulhu." Tsuchimikado said. "They are amateurs when it comes to magic, unlike their higher ups but their vast funding tends to let them do quite a lot of damage."
"So were they ordered to take us out?" Mikoto asked.
"That was probably the intended goal of their superiors". Tsuchimikado said. "But apparently they told the grunts it was just a terrorist attack. Guess they were pretty low on the totem pole even where grunts are concerned."
"A pretty pathetic attempt." Stiyl said as juggled a pack of cigars out of Agnese's reach. "A little too pathetic, they had to know we would expect interference, why not just send one of those mercenaries on their jet packs to blow us out of the sky?"
"Yeah, I was sort of wondering that." Ben said scratching his chin. "And I think I know why. You guys said Phyrexis the Blood Drinker was one of the Fist of Cthulhu's major leaders right? Maybe because we took him out, the cult had a falling out with Albedo, so they tried to take revenge. I mean think about it, Albedo needs Mikoto alive. So why would he send grunts to go blow up the plane she's on?"
"Actually, that seems like the most likely scenario." Tsuchimikado said with a frown. "But it doesn't change the fact that both of them are still out to get us. Ben when we get onto the next flight, go ChamAlien and check out everything on the plane invisible, I don't think they would waste money blowing up both our flights but it never hurts to check. Stiyl set up runes around the inside of the plane in case we need to summon Innocentius."
However, it turned out the flight back to Academy City was quite uneventful unless you count the part where Stiyl was scolded by a flight attendant for sticking paper all over the interior of the plane and where an invisible ChamAlien accidentally knocked over a very confused attendants food cart with his tail. Finally they were walking out of the subway train that had taken them out of the airport and back to Academy City. Ben out down his suit case and stretched.
"Man it's good to be back, never thought I would actually miss going to school for once." Ben said. Ben suddenly noticed Mikoto looking straight ahead with a shocked expression on her face. "Uhhhhh.....Mikoto? Is there something wrong?"
Ben looked to see where Mikoto was looking. In the distance, a familiar red haired girl was running in their direction as if she was being chased by Satan himself.
"Is that.....Kuroko!!?" Mikoto exclaimed.
"SIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN!!!!!!!!???" Kuroko did an angry full body tackle into Mikoto, knocking her to the ground.
"K-Kuroko, give me a chance to explai-" Mikoto said as she tried to push Kuroko off of her.
"TWO AND A HALF WEEKS, YOU AND BEN COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED FOR ALL I KNOW LEAVING THE DORM IN RUINS-!!!!"
Ben looked bewildered. "My dorm is in ruins?!"
"YOU STOP INTERRUPTING, I'LL GET TO YOU LATER ALIEN KID!!!"
"Alien kid?"
Tsuchimikado cleared his throat. "Excuse me breaking up this heartfelt reunion and all, but I would rather these two explain themselves in a more private setting. Plus people are starting to stare."
Sure enough, passerby were all looking at them like this was some sort of strange soap opera.
Kuroko sighed and let Mikoto up. "Fine, but once we get back to the dorm, I'm going to demand a full explanation, especially from you Tsuchimikado!!"
"Sorry," Tsuchimikado said with a grin. "But I'm going back to my dorm to see my sis. Don't worry, I'll answer any question you have tomorrow. Ya coming Stiyl? You know that Touma lives right next door to me and I think it's time to read him into this as planned."
"Yeah, sure." Stiyl said. He and Tsuchimikado started walking away.
"By the way!" The retreating figure of Tsuchimikado called back. "Don't worry about the damage to your dorm Benjy, that was taken care of this morning!" And with that, Stiyl and Tsuchimikado walked off, leaving Mikoto, Ben, Kuroko, and Agnese. Kuroko was still shaking with anger.
"That Tsuchimikado, he better have one hell of an explanation or I'll crack his head open."Kuroko said furiously
At first Ben thought they would have to walk all the way back to the dorm (JetRay couldn't carry so many people at once). But that was soon proven wrong once he made it to Academy City's main airport parking lot. In front of the entrance was parked an amazing looking sleek sports car that was black with curvy green racing stripes. The center of the tire spokes were each decorated with the familiar Omnitrix hourglass symbol. On the hood of the car, was a note with familiar handwriting that said:
Hey Tennyson, heard from Gwen that you got into a little fender bender the other day.
Thought this would be the perfect time to show you what I've been working on ever since we got that prime engine block from Khoros*.
Hope you like your new ride, Kevin.
P.S. Don't be a doofus Tennyson, you know exactly where to find the keys.
Sure enough, Ben found a set of car keys under a fake rock right next to the tire. Ben looked at the car with a sense of awe. The fact that this note and car were here must have meant Kevin heard about the whole Albedo incident. Ben looked around the crowded parking lot but could not see the familiar face of Kevin* anywhere.
"You've got some pretty good friends." Mikoto said looking at the note in Ben's hand.
"Yeah," Ben said with a grin. "To quote a friend of mine, I guess you can say that I'm not alone."
Mikoto blinked for a minute before realizing that Ben was talking about her. She grinned right back. "Well, are we just going to stand around looking at it, or are we going to give her a go?"
A little later, Ben was driving down the streets of Academy City with Mikoto, Agnese, and Kuroko (who was giving them all the silent treatment for now). Agnese had begged Ben to let her sit shot gun.
"Why do you want to sit shot gun so bad?" Ben had asked.
"W-well, you see......." Agnese blushed and started twiddling her fingers.
Ben, still quite oblivious when it came to the advances of females, just shrugged and let Agnese sit shot gun, while Mikoto rolled her eyes muttering something about boys. Now they finally parked in front of the apartment area that was filled with dorms for high schoolers. When they finally climbed up the stairs to Ben's door, they opened it to find a huge surprise. The entire room pristine and clean, the damaged furniture had been replaced, and the carpet had been steam cleaned. It was as if WaterHazard had never fought Innocentius.
"That's impossible!" Kuroko exclaimed. I was here this morning, no way they had this much time.
"It's like Tsuchimikado hired a crime scene cleanup crew." Ben said walking in and setting his suitcase down.
"That would indeed be an accurate assessment." Agnese said. "Part of the role of Necessarius is to ensure the that magic and science remain as separate from each other as the alliance would allow, so therefore, it is only natural for us to cleanup well after our battles." After a few minutes of unpacking, and Ben had cooked up some frozen meals for the four of them, they all gathered around in the living room. Kuroko sat on the couch with her arms folded in a demanding manner.
"Okay, I think it's time you explained yourself."
Ben and Mikoto told Kuroko everything that had happened in the past 2 and a half weeks. With a little help from Agnese, they were able to tell Kuroko all about Necessarius, and Ben's evil look-alike Albedo, as well as Radiowave and The Fist of Cthulhu. In return, Kuroko told Ben and Kuroko all about her investigation into Radiowave and how she was ambushed by EightEight.
"Figures that they would only leave EightEight to guard that room." Ben muttered. "She's supposed to have beaten a bunch of prison sentinels with nothing but her bare hands and a turnip."
Mikoto raised her eyebrows. "A turnip, seriously?"
"Long story." Ben said. "But the point is that you were lucky that she didn't capture you Kuroko, or more likely kill you."
Kuroko puffed her chest out pridefully. "It takes more then a freak from another planet to take me down, if those foreigners want to play on our home turf, then they have got to play by our rules."
"But what are we going to do now?" Mikoto asked. "I mean we know who they are, and even though we don't know what they want with me, we still have a gist of how they work. I mean, should we just go ahead and attack Radiowave then beat up Albedo?"
Agnese shook her head. "It's not as simple as that, Albedo is the new head of Radiowave. If we go in and take Albedo out, it will take one heck of a cover story to smooth things over. And besides the 3 mercenaries from the Deadly 12, we still don't know what forces Albedo has up his sleeve even with The Fist of Cthulhu not working for him anymore. The best we can do right now is to wait for now, until we know more."
"Waiting sounds good and all, but if I know anything about Albedo and SixSix, waiting won't exactly be on their agenda the moment they figure out we're back in Academy City." Ben said with a hint of worry.
Agnese smiled. "Don't worry, if the Fist of Cthulhu is really going rebel, then Albedo is going to have his hands full for quite a while before he can start moving in on us."
Ben had to admit, it made sense. Albedo was the type liked to keep loose ends tied up, especially if he wanted to keep his location a secret from Azmuth and Ben. In any case, it seemed that the best thing to do right now was to wait until the right moment. Ben sighed.
"Well in any case, if we're gonna be waiting this out then I better actually start getting some homework done."
Mikoto jumped up. "Crap! I didn't do any of my homework either! Kuroko, did they start school back up yet?"
"Yeah, they were able to repair all the important stuff, so they actually started back up yesterday, looks like the damage from those Techadons were more severe on the dorm areas."
Mikoto let out a panicked squeak and ran off to fetch the ginormous stack of papers that was still on the desk of the room she slept in. Ben, who had an even larger stack of papers on the dining table merely groaned.
"You know, I could probably go Brainstorm and have this all finished in about 30 minutes.."
"Ben!!" Mikoto re-entered the living room clutching her large stack of homework. "You are not cheating!"
"Yeah, uh huh, so when is your homework all due?"
Mikoto paused for a minute. "Fine, just do it already."
Ben grinned as he activated the Omnitrix and began programming it to turn him into Brainstorm.
Meanwhile, in the top floor of the Radiowave building Albedo sitting in quiet anger at his desk. On his left stood SevenSeven while on his right stood SixSix. The intercom went off and a woman's voice spoke.
" My dearest apologies Mr. Galvan, but there are strange people here who are insisting-"
Albedo interrupted. "No worries Angela just send them in, I'll deal with this.......personally."
Albedo began unconsciously fiddling with the Omnitrix on his wrist. Like Albedo was to Ben, the Inferior Omnitrix was nearly identical in appearance to the original except that where the color was usually green, everything was red. The red color actually almost gave it a sort of Anti-Omnitrix look. Suddenly the door opened and several old men with long beards all dressed similarly to Phyrexis filed through the entrance and formed a half circle opposite Albedo's desk.
"You have betrayed us, being from the stars." One of the leaders of the Fist of Cthulhu said. "And now you shall be dealt judgement by the Great One Himself."
Albedo let out a sarcastic yawn. "Oh please, I doubt that Dagain would be interested in little old me much less you pathetic human meat bags."
"You dare talk of the Great Cthulhu!? You dare speak his true name!? Even after you sent our great brother Phyrexis to his death!?"
"Ah, so you do know that Cthulhu was merely a literary name created by a pathetic human author to describe the one known as Dagain the Destroyer. And here I thought that all you sorcerers were mere pond scum."
The sorcerers looked furious, their bodies began to glow with a dark aura that preceded their brand of magic. SixSix and SevenSeven both waved their weapons threateningly but Albedo waved them down.
"No need SixSix, didn't I say I would deal with this personally?" Albedo activated his Omnitrix.
Imdiately Albedo was surrounded by a bright red light. Rath stood where Albedo had moments before. However this Rath looked different from when Ben turned into Rath. This one had darker colored fur, and its eyes shone with bright blood red instead of a light green. Anti-Rath leapt out from behind the desk with nightmarish agility and punched one of the sorcerers into the ground where a large crater and a pool of blood erupted from where the sorcerer lay. He then went on to do the same against the others. The sorcerers were no match against Albedo's Appoplexian speed and power and soon they all lay dead before him.
The red light flashed again, and Albedo's Ben-like form reappeared.
"Tsk tsk, you made me risk my cover, now that just won't do." Albedo turned to look at SixSix and SevenSeven.
"Find the rest of their group. Leave none alive."
SixSix and SevenSeven bowed and made their leave. Albedo went back to his seat and pressed the intercom.
"Angela, could you send me up some Chili fries? Thank you. Oh and can you please send up the cleaning drones? The business meeting got messy again."
*Khoros is the home planet of FourArms. FourArms species, the Tetramands are known throughout the galaxy for being quite skilled a designing engines for all sorts of vehicles. As it turns out, Tetramands are big fans of Earth made vehicles, and sometimes they would hold interplanetary car shows. Kevin has a tendency to visit these car shows whenever he can.
*Kevin Levin is Ben Tennyson's best friend and Gwen Tennyson's boyfriend. When Ben was ten, Kevin used to be an enemy of Ben's but in the later years Kevin has walked the straight path thanks to Ben. Kevin is also part Osmosian. An alien race similar in appearance to humans that have the the power to absorb and take on the properties of anything they touch. For example, Kevin can touch a concrete wall and instantly become encased in concrete skin, gaining super strength and durability.