A Certain Powerful Omnitrix 4: World War X

Alien Radio Noise

"Welcome to the hideout." said Gunha grinning.

The group had travelled through the underground caves for about 2 hours before they had come to what looked like an indentation in the rock. When they had reached the area, Gunha, with Ben's help, had pushed into the indentation, revealing a small door just large enough for a normal sized person to fit through. They had come in to find a large cave-like room full of computer servers, high tech equipment, weapons, monitoring systems that were hooked up to the Academy City cameras, and broken remains of some captured mechs.

Lookind around Mikoto could see a large bulletin board full of photos and reports that spoke of rumored sightings on Ben's aliens all over the world. There was even a security camera shot of WaterHazard taking down the human trafficker from before.

"Sorry about that." said Gunha nodding at the bulletin board. "I know it looks kinda stalkish, but we wanted to keep tabs just in case Recoil or Providence got to you. And the team needed the moral that you guys were still alive and fighting."

"Well to be honest....." said Mikoto. "When we came into the city, we thought this might be a suicide mission...that this would be our last battle."

"You might be right about that..." said Gunha. "But you can't be completely sure. For one thing, there are rumors going around about Ben and this supposed prophecy made by some guys called the ancient ones...."

"Oh..." said Mikoto. "That...try not to mention that thing too much. We actually met the ancient ones, and the journey there wasn't exactly all pleasant."

Gunha shrugged. "Just saying.......prophecies have a tendency to come true......whatever the case, this may be your last fight, it may not.....but don't make the mistake of just assuming you'll die.....be prepared to die, but don't assume."

"So who else is part of this group?" asked Ben as he watched the other youths remove their equipment and gather new ones.

"Well Accelerator just recently joined up, but he's gone missing for some reason." said Gunha. "I'm the guy who formed this whole organization, so I'm the leader.....There's your friend Shirai Kuroko...she'll be absolutely thrilled when she hears that you guys are okay, she's been worrying for months. A pyrokinesist named Rikuo Karin..."

"RIkuo Karin!?" exclaimed Ben. "As in Sky Scorcher!? But she's been trying to capture us!! She nearly fried me in Paris!!"

"She's actually been playing Recoil." said Gunha. "She told me about how Toepick totally went scary face on her back in Paris........she didn't plan on going all out against you, but she told me to tell you that after this is over, she demands a rematch."

"Of course," said Ben. "That definitely sounds like Scorcher alright."

"Ben could whoop her with his eyes closed." said Mikoto. "I don't care if she did manage to reach level 6, because the power level she's been using in combat so far seems more like level 5."

"She's been holding back for a long while." said Gunha. "Trust me.....I've seen her raze an entire row of Sky Scrapers with just a wave of her hand......"

"Makes me wonder what her Flaming Skyscraper move is like at full strength." muttered Ben.

"So before we go and start causing havoc on the world above...." said MIkoto. "Could you explain to us what's been happening since we've left? We've actually been in the dark for about 5 months."

"Well it started about a month after you guys went missing." said Gunha. "Academy City policy started changing little by little.....then the militarization began. At first they said it was to counter the growing activities of Skill Out. We believed them at first, because Ben's absence seemed to have sparked sort of a growing resistance int their members now that they knew Humungousaur wasn't going to be crashing down their hangouts."

Gunha sighed and sat down on a rocky outcropping of the cave. "Then things got problematic..... Rumors got out that someone had gotten a hold of Ben's DNA map, and that the Omnitrix's specs were also included in it. Some of Antiskill went to investigate....next thing we knew, Level 0s were being rounded up and Undertown had been discovered. Aliens all over Academy City were being rounded up by mechs and never seen again. Everyone was shocked at first because nobody knew about the aliens living underground.....but then we started working together to hide the aliens from the board of directors."

"So what happened then?" asked Mikoto. "The only aliens I've ever seen around here since we've gotten in are the clones and Ben when he transforms."

"There aren't any aliens left." said Gunha. "We tried...but they were all eventually captured....even the strong ones that couldve taken on 50 mechs by themselves. Azmuth is the only one whose managed to evade capture after his lab under Tokwadai was raided. He even was able to secure and move away all his research and data too....man that little guy is smart. But we haven't seen or heard of Azmuth since then. It was the Ultimate clones that eventually put the odds in Aleister's favor and allowed him to capture the last of the aliens."

Gunha shook his head. "I gotta hand it to Ben, he's a fierce fighter. With his combat skills loaded onto those Ultimates, it was a wonder any of Skill Savior got out alive that first day they attacked our old hideout. Ultimate Echo Echo completely destroyed the building while Ultimate Spidermonkey swung throughout the alleys and started picking us off one by one. Guess we should thank our lucky stars they didn't clone Ultimate Wildmutt or all of us would be dead.........half our number was lost that day."

Guna rose his shirt high enough to show what looked like a seriously painful scar across his torso. "One of Ultimate Spidermonkey's spider leg thingys did that to me...kind of surprising since I've survived being rammed by trucks...those evolved forms were definitely designed for combat."

"No surprise there." said Ben. "I've used Ultimate Spidermonkey a bunch, that guy's got some serious agility and power."

"Has there been anyway to counter them?" asked Mikoto.

"Nope..." said Gunha. "We haven't been able to stand in a fight against a single one of those alien clones. In fact, it's impressive that you two lasted as long as you did against all 6 of them back their. Then again, you are the Railgun, and Ben's knows how he fights."

"So what are we supposed to do then?" said Ben. "If we want the operation we are about to do to succeed, we need to take down our opponent's strongest players.....and it's the Ultimate clones."

"Maybe you can use Atomix or Way Big?" said Mikoto. "Those guys are more then strong enough to take one Ultimate on with no sweat."

"Way Big would cause too much collateral. And even though I know Atomix can take down almost any serious fighter with no problem, I've never fought 6 of my own Ultimate forms at once." said Ben.

"Well we have no choice." said Gunha. "With Accelerator missing and Sky Scorcher still stuck with Recoil, the only fighters who stand a ghost of a chance right now are me and you two."

"So what's the plan?" said Mikoto. "Do we sneak back in the labs, smash a bunch of stuff, free the prisoners, then smash our way out?"

"That's how it starts." said Gunha. "But then we get them out of the city, there's no way that any of the level 0s or aliens can stay here....not with what's going on now. I've got a contact from the Plumbers that Azmuth helped me get, I've already called him, he's sending in a stealth shuttle to take everyone off world until this whole thing blows over. No way Providence will be able to detect that kind of tech. Oh yeah, and I should probably say that you two will also be taking that shuttle."

"What?" said Ben. "No way! we can't just leave the Earth in this state."

"It's not about that Ben." said Mikoto. "The reason everyone want's you in the first place is because of Alien X. Aleister Crowley already has the war he wants so he can attract Diagon. If Aleister manages to get his hands on Alien X, it'll make everything worse."

"........."

"Hey," said Mikoto brushing Ben's hair with her hand lightly. "I'll be coming with you..."

"Yeah..." said Ben. "And since the odds are against us on this mission, we might not make it out alive anyways.......so I guess it's good."

"Glad we got that settled." said Gunha standing up. "So......who's ready to go cause chaos in a lab?"