Herc sat down at his desk, ready for another boring week of half-sleeping through class. Even though he was trained to keep a low profile and have infinite patience, he would be rather taking his boredom out on some kind of criminal. After a few minutes, the teacher walked in, looking very grumpy. Herc immediatly sat up straight. No matter what planet you were on, higher authority should be obeyed until it is overthrown, or at least stifled. The teacher stood in front of the desk and looked down at the students.
"Class," He said. "I would 'like' to remind you that the school dance is coming up. A warning though; don't even think of trying anything stupid, like asking someone totally out of your league, and them agreeing, and then you being totally staged up while they go with the popular guy and break your heart WHY, CINDY, WHHYYY???!!!!"
While the teacher was sobbing, Herc leaned towards Lisa and asked what was going on.
"According to ancient legend(the guy's past middle age), he asked a really popular girl, named Cindy, to the dance, and she said yes. Cindy never showed, and when he decided to just go, he found her dancing with a popular football jock. Nowdays, he has a breakdown every dance."
"Oooookaayy..." Herc said. "I've already said this before, but you humans confuse me."
The teacher started sobbing even louder, and his eyes were starting to look like the Hoover Dam if it ever got broken.
"Shouldn't we take him to the nurse's office or something?"
"Nah. He'll be fine in about a half hour."
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As they were walking home from school, Lisa asked Herc who he was going to take to the dance.
"I'm not even going to the dance."
"Why not?"
"Well, lets see; One, I find dances highly unessecary, Two, I would rather not go through the hassle of getting someone to go with me, Three, I'm an alien. I don't dance!"
"But Herc, everybody goes to the dance! You would totally blow your cover if you didn't go!"
"Although I extremely doubt the truth of that statement, I would also blow my cover if I did go. To be quite frank, I don't trust anyone except you guys."
"Well, then why not take me to the dance? I can teach you."
"Uh, guys?" Mark said. "Can we figure the whole dance thing out after we do something about that giant, four-armed, spiky red alien over there?" He pointed in front of them.
"Uh-Oh. Smashron."
"Is that bad?"
"Definitely. Strong, mean, and as dumb as a brick. Scratch that. I would be insulting the brick."
Herc shape-shifted into a tank and zoomed forward, ramming into the Smashron at full force. The Smashron just picked him up and threw him (still a 2-ton tank) over the skyline and into the gorge. Herc then turned into an F-15 fighter jet and zoomed off, gaining full speed (Mach 2.5+) in just a few seconds, slamming into the Smashron. It was the Smashron's turn to go flying, but it flew into space instead of the gorge. Herc landed and turned back into human. As they walked, Lisa said "You know, dancing can't be that hard."
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Herc eventually gave in and agreed to take Lisa to the dance. First, however, came dancing lessons.
"Okay, Herc, dancing is an art. You have to let yourself express feeling, follow the beat, let it flow through you." Lisa said.
"So, dancing is a combination of feeling, rythm, and compatability?" Herc asked.
"Well, you don't have to make it sound so scientific."
"Hold on, I think I understand what to do."
Herc looked like he was concentrating on something for a few moments, and then started dancing as if he had been doing it for years.
"Wow, Herc! That's amazing! How did you do that?"
"Simple. I just amped the power on the areas of the brain that control the fundaments of dancing as stated before."
"Is that some kind of alien power?"
"No. When I shapeshift, I gain the abilities and weakness's of whatever I turn into. I just have experience controlling the functions of whatever it is I am using mental discipline. You could do it to, if you knew what to do."
"Well, what do you do?"
"In human form, I simply redirect the neuron flows so that I get more power to the areas I focus on. Focus all your thought on redirection, and you can do it. The human form has an amazing amount of potential, more than I could have imagined. You just don't know how to use it."
"So, say I could convince myself I was friends with an arrogant alien mercenary? Oh wait, my bad, already happened."
"Hah-Hah, laugh it up."
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Herc dragged himself into school. Yet another boring day, doing the same old things until the dance that night. Or would it be? Herc looked across the hall to find someone staring at him with a look of smugness mixed with disdain.
"Hey, you!" Herc said, walking towards the guy. "What's with the face?"
"Oh, of course, I forgot you wouldn't recognize me in this particular human form." The person said. "Of cousre, this isn't my true human form, but if people saw that, my identity would be exposed to Tech."
"Wait a second, what's the deal? Do I know you?"
"That's for you to decide, kid."
"Igneoux! How did you turn into a human? And what did you mean by your 'true human form'?"
"That's for me to know and for you to preferably never find out."
Herc was considering punching Igneoux, but then the bell rang.
"Oh, and don't forget the infinite crossing."
"What do you-"
At that moment, Lisa and Mark walked by.
"Come on, Herc!" Lisa said. "We're going to be late for class!"
"Hey, who's that guy?" Mark asked.
"I believe that is my personal information." Igneoux said. "I would keep from sticking your proverbial noses where they don't belong, or somebody might get hurt."
And with that, Igneoux walked away.
"Friend of yours?" Mark asked.
"Far from it." Herc muttered.
He then noticed a note on the ground. Picking it up, he started reading.
"Looks like you found this. Took you long enough." It read.
"Now, read this carefully. If you want to know who to look for, follow the trail of blue energy to the mouth of the exo-shelled dragon. From there, find the Galvem and you'll find out. Still don't get it? Good; you're not supposed to."
"Woah. Psychotic poem writer. Weird." Mark said.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get to class." Herc said. "I can solve this later."
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"Little did anyone know, this was a great foreshadowing in the future of the series!"
"Mark! What did I tell you about breaking the fourth wall?!"
"Sorry."
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Herc nervously made his way towards the school. This is sort of dangerous when you're a car on the main road.
"Don't worry, Herc." Lisa said. "It's just an hour of dancing, which you're good at, then we go home. No reason to be so nervous. Now, could you please try not to get us killed?!"
Herc swerved back into the right lane and tried to keep his wheels straight. He was relieved when they parked and he was able to shapeshift back into human form, except he was wearing a suit. Needless to say, he had gotten some very strange looks on the road. A car wearing a giant suit is not a common sight. Herc and Lisa entered the school. Needless to say, Herc panicked immediatly upon entering the gym. There were a bunch of people already there, and the dance had just barely started.
"That's weird." Lisa said.
"What?" Herc asked. "That there are so many people?"
"No. That not everybody is here. They're usually dancing before it even starts."
Herc almost ran out right there. He only stayed to keep his dignity.
"Okay, then. Well, time to 'bust my moves' as humans say."
"Uh...You know what, I'm just going to ignore that old 70's phrase and try to have a normal dance with you."
"Well, I'm not exactly normal, so good luck."
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The dance went well in the first half. In the second half, however, things went awry. Right in the middle of the dance, the roof was blasted by some kind of beam. Herc, thinking quickly, yelled at the rest of the students to get under the bleachers. As people were running and no one was paying attention to him, he turned into his regular form and shifted his left arm into a flail and his right into a plasma cannon. At this point, something that looked like a green cloud smashed through the roof. It reformed into a Virobe on the floor. Herc knew this species well. Common, succesful, and dangerous.
"Hello, there!" It said menacingly in a buzzing, almost french-toned voice. "I would love to stay and play, but I have a job to do."
It then sent it's fist at Herc, punching him square in the face. The impact also dispersed some of it's substance, which spread across the room. Herc took this oppurtunity to turn into human and hide under the bleachers. When the Virobe collected himself, he turned towards the bleachers.
"I don't know where that Grikonian went, but no matter. I have a substance to deliver. I've added a little something extra to my aarsenal. Works fast; who has time to wait?"
And with that, the Virobe blasted a beam of microbes towards the bleachers. Herc, without thinking, ran out and blocked the other students with his body, letting the beam hit him instead. It knocked him back a little, and when he had straightened himself up, the Virobe was already flying away.
"All in a good days work, eh?" It called down. "Orevua!"
As the other students came out of the bleachers, Lisa ran over to Herc.
"Herc!" She said. "Are you all right?"
"I will be," Herc replied. "Once I can turn back to myself. He infected me with a type of viris that corrupts body cells, slowly killing the host. The human equivalent is cancer, I believe. Fortunetly, Grikonian cells can't corrupt. They already shift into everything imaginable, it has no effect. If any humans had been infected, however, they would have been dead."
"You saved the entire school! You're definitly a better person than you want to be."
"I'm a mercenary; I'm doing whatever it takes to get to my goal."
"And that goal would be?"
Herc thought for a few moments, and then awnsered:
"I'm not really sure anymore. It was to get the Ultimatrix, it's still to rebuild my ship, but I really don't know if I have any other goals."
"You've saved people from aliens at least twice, and stopped a lot of criminals. Does that give you any ideas?"
"I suppose. I have some bugs to work out of myself, I just don't know which to work out."
"For now, let's just keep you the way you are, and see where that leads."
"Probably to a lot more weird, dangerous situations."
"Can't argue with you there."
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Herc was unaware of a pair of eyes watching him talk with Lisa. And it's a good thing, otherwise he might have figured out what was going on. Igneoux activated his jetboard, and zoomed away into space. 'As if that fool would ever figure out who I am.' Igneoux thought, activating a device on his chest.
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Comments[]
Ooooooohh, cliffhanger for Igneoux! Can you, using the riddle and the clue just given, decipher who Igneoux is? I'll bet the awnser will surprise you! His identity will be revealed in the final battle between him and Tech, but as for now, post your guesses and thought on this chapter in the bullets below! Add more bullets if nessecary. Well, it is true that Rockoustic is Igneoux's DNA sample, but it goes much further than that.
- Either Igneoux is an omnitrix wielder, or Tech scanned Igneoux.
- Igneoux is an alien from someone's Omnitrix, and that person never turns back to human, or whatever species he is.
- Actually, no. I changed my mind about the whole final battle thing(came up with a better story), and so you might want to read A TekNoLogical disaster! to find out who he is.