Tech 10: Ultimatrix Unleashed/Mystery of the Ultimatrix Arc

Fearoid Rises
So.

That just happened.

To start off with, I was walking down in the gorge like usual, right? Daily exercise and all that. Well, today, for whatever reason, I felt like heading up east instead of west like usual. Nothing all that important, you know? Up the gorge a ways east are the local hot springs, which are normally avoided because they tend to spew out a lot of sulfur. For those who don't know, that means the air in the area will occasionally just start smelling like rotten eggs for no reason other than mother nature feeling cranky at the moment.

The springs didn't seem to be going off today, thankfully enough, which is probably part of why I felt comfortable enough going the direction I did. Anyways, some ways up the trail, I turned a corner and caught a glimpse of a red cloud slipping behind a boulder and disappearing. After waiting in silence for a few minutes to see if it would come back out, I decided to check out the boulder, finding that the cloud thing had just up and vanished.

"Hm...If I was a suspicious red cloud, where would I be?" I wondered aloud.

After a bit of thinking, I figured out a strategy of sorts and transformed into Overtide, liquefying myself into a puddle of liquid that began to creep around the area. I was looking for some sort of hole or crack in the ground that wasn't airtight, and a few moments later, I actually managed to find one!

I slipped down through the crack I had found, landing in some sort of dimly lit metal room. There were crates of supplies stacked around the area, and a large screen mounted above a computer console of some kind near the end of the room. The red cloud I had spotted was floating in front of it, but a couple moments later, it suddenly coalesced into a humanoid alien!

I hid behind one of the crates and peeked out to observe the alien. It had red skin and looked kind of like some sort of demon, with six black horns jutting out of its head. It wore a white mask over half of its face, and it had a dusty brown belt, gloves, boots, and cape. It walked up to the computer console and tapped a few buttons on it, starting what looked like a video call. After a few moments of ringing, the person it was calling picked up, switching the screen to a close-up view of a large, stocky alien shrouded in darkness.

The only details I could make out about the alien on the screen were that it had a long, hooked horn on top of its head and had four glowing reddish eyes, two on its head and two on its chest.

"What is it now, Takut?" The alien on the other end of the call demanded in a deep, gruff voice.

"You said this town was too insignificant to have anyone important defending it!" The red alien, who I guess was named Takut, snapped.

"I do recall saying that. As far as I know, that statement still holds true."

"Then explain why there's an Omnitrix wielder here!"

"...Excuse me?"

Takut began waving his arms wildly.

"An Omnitrix wielder! I've gradually been increasing the criminal element here for months, but over the past few weeks or so, somebody with an Omnitrix has been taking them out!

"And you're sure this is an Omnitrix wielder? Not merely a group of normal aliens?"

"Considering that all the aliens I've seen have worn Omnitrix symbols, yeah, I'm pretty sure!"

The stocky alien on the other end of the video call sighed and pulled back from the screen a bit.

"That is unfortunate. However, I still expect you to do your job."

"How?!"

"Get more criminals. Call in some of Tennyson's rogues gallery if you have to. I shouldn't have to come up with all the solutions for you."

"But-"

Takut was cut off by the other alien suddenly dropping the call, leaving him standing there with an annoyed, semi-panicked expression.

"You gotta be kidding me! How am I supposed to get people like that here?!"

"Why do you need to?"

It was at this point that I decided to step out from behind the crate and reveal myself. Takut practically jumped out of his skin and whipped around to face me as fast as possible.

"Curses!" He snapped. "How did you get in here?!"

"The front door was unlocked." I gestured up to the crack I entered through. "Anyways, what's this about taking me out?"

"Well, it's not something I look forward to, believe you me." Takut grumbled. "You weren't even supposed to be involved."

Takut lunged towards me, punching at the Ultimatrix symbol. I tried to knock him away, but I was too slow. He managed to hit the dial and send me flying back a few feet, reverting me to human. He stared at my true form in mild shock for a few moments.

"What the...you're just some kid!"

"Who were you expecting, Ben Tennyson?" I asked.

"No, but I was certainly expecting something more impressive. This should only take a couple seconds."

He lunged at me again, aiming for my head. Thinking quickly, I hurled my right arm out in front of me, blocking his attack with the Ultimatrix. His fist hit it dead on, being stopped in its tracks. All of a sudden, the Ultimatrix flashed yellow, with the dial twisting around and settling on a hologram that looked a lot like Takut himself. A static-filled, garbled voice sounded from the Ultimatrix, indicating that it was trying to announce something, but its speakers were busted for some reason.

"What the-did you just scan my DNA?!" Takut demanded.

"I have no idea." I replied, shrugging. "Might as well find out!"

I slammed down on the Ultimatrix dial, transforming into an alien that was practically a mirror image of Takut, save for my own outfit being various shades of green.

"Hey, this is pretty neat." I noted, looking myself over. "I didn't even know I could do that!"

"You mean you don't even know how your Omnitrix works?" Takut asked in disbelief.

"Not really." I shrugged again. "I usually just wing it."

"Then what am I still doing here?"

Takut dissolved himself into a red cloud again and flew up towards the entrance.

"Finding someone capable of taking you out should be a breeze!"

"Why do you want to take me out?!" I demanded. "That's just rude!"

"There are forces at work here you couldn't comprehend in a million years, kid!"

"Hey! I could probably comprehend them in only, like, a tenth of that!"

"That's still one hundred thousand years!"

"Yeah, well...you're stupid!"

Gee, thanks brain. Throwing out the real zingers here.

Takut didn't even justify that with a response (not that I blame him) and just up and left. After taking a few minutes to figure out how my own powers worked, I dispersed my body and flew out after him, but by the time I got back to the surface, he was already gone.

I mean, at least I got a cool new alien out of the whole mess, but, like...that doesn't sound good, right? I'm not just being paranoid about this? I dunno. I can't even come up with a good one-liner, so I don't know how I'm supposed to process all of that stuff.

Side Notes: My new alien is kinda weird. I think he can control emotions like fear and what not, and it seem like his "true" body is the sphere thing in his chest. I think I'll call him...Fearoid!

Crystalean, Mean, Crab Machine
You ever just have one of those days where everything seems to start out fine but then go wrong? You know, you wake up early and refreshed, eat some breakfast, get dressed, you're in a good mood, everything's hunky-dory, and then suddenly your arch-enemy shows up and tries to kill you?

Okay, maybe that last part's just me, but still.

"Foolish human!" Xenon shouted at me, blocking my path on the sidewalk. I had been trying to go walking for some aerobic exercise, but I suppose I could handle the anaerobic exercise involved with kicking him into orbit.

"What do you want, Xenon?" I grumbled, reaching for the Ultimatrix. "How did you even get out of that weird pocket dimension?"

"It's called the Null Void, you simpleton!" Xenon retorted, snapping his claws together angrily. "And that's none of your business! Just give me the Ultimatrix!"

"I could literally just step around you right now."

"Nonsense! I'll just stop you with my electrical powers, you feeble-minded fool!"

I swiftly activated the Ultimatrix and transformed into Rockoustic, glaring down at Xenon with an unimpressed look.

"Dude, just go home." I waved him off. "There's pretty much nothing you can do to me like this."

"Then I'll just turn you into something else!"

Before I could figure out what that meant, Xenon hit the Ultimatrix symbol with an electric bolt, making me transform into a different alien. The new alien seemed to be made out of large blue crystals assuming a stocky humanoid shape. My head was triangular, with a single shield-shaped eye in the middle of it. The Ultimatrix symbol remained in the center of my chest.

"Huh." I began looking myself over. "It did not occur to me you could do that."

"You seem unfamiliar with this form." Xenon grumbled accusingly.

"Yeah, never seen it before."

"Why do you keep unlocking new aliens?!" Xenon wildly waved his claws around in frustration.

"I've told you before, I don't know." I shrugged. "It just keeps happening."

"You really are an annoyance." Xenon narrowed his eyes. "But with any luck, you won't be around to bug me for much longer!"

Xenon shot a large bolt of electricity at me. Instead of being partially absorbed into my body like it usually would, the bolt hit me with the full brunt of its force, sending me flying backwards a good few meters before I skidded to a halt on the ground.

"What was that?!" I asked, caught off-guard by the sudden attack.

"You're made of diamond right now, if you hadn't noticed." Xenon began charging up an even larger electric attack. "Diamond doesn't conduct electricity very well!"

“Then let’s go with an alien who’s great at conducting electricity!”

I attempted to activate the Ultimatrix dial, but nothing seemed to happen. I began tapping on it, starting to get annoyed.

“What are you doing?” Xenon asked.

“I’m trying to turn into Electrolite, but this thing isn’t working!”

“All the better for me!”

Xenon shot another bolt of electricity at me. As it was about to hit, I braced myself for impact, clenching my eye shut. I felt my body become larger all of a sudden, taking on a lighter feeling. There was a slight crackling around my body, followed by...nothing.

I opened my eye to find that my body had indeed expanded, taking on a black, grainy texture. Xenon was staring at me in annoyance.

“And now you’re graphite.” Xenon grumbled. “Why not?”

“Graphite?” I questioned, looking myself over. “Wait, if I started out as diamond and then turned into graphite, that means-”

“Yes, you dolt!” Xenon snapped, obviously getting impatient. “You’re made of carbon! On top of that, you can apparently switch between different states of the element!”

“Okay, thanks.” I paused for a moment. “So...what now?”

“I’m just going to leave.” Xenon grumbled, starting to scuttle away. “Next time, bringing the robot.”

“Hey! What makes you think you can just assault me and leave?!”

Xenon turned back to shoot me an annoyed glare.

“Be realistic.” He snapped. “What exactly is your plan here? Stick me in the river and tell me to “stay”?”

“...Uh...”

“That’s what I thought.”

Xenon pressed a button on his harness, teleporting away to parts unknown. As soon as he left, the Ultimatrix suddenly deactivated, turning me back to human.

“Oh, thanks a lot!” I threw my arms up in the air in frustration. “You couldn’t have worked earlier?!”

After a few moments of standing there in silence, I let out a huff of frustration and started back on my walk.

Sometimes I think I’ll never figure this watch out.

Side Notes: The new alien started out made of crystal, so maybe...Crystalean? I just don't know anymore.

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