Team Player

Team Player is the first episode of Project Deca.

Episode
"Tennyson!"

"Veggie King!"

"Ben!" Kevin snapped, taking cover behind a slab of concrete debris. "Stop yelling at him and do something!"

"I'm working on it!" Heatblast yelled back, rocketing through the air and pelting the ground with bursts of flame. Humanoid vegetables of all sorts flooded the battlefield, all sprouting forth from a single Florauna-like alien sitting in the center of the destroyed strip mall.

"Work faster!"

Heatblast surrounded his fist with flame and changed his flight path to face downwards, crashing into the ground like a flaming meteor. A massive fireball exploded out from his fist, burning away a significant number of the hostile vegetables.

"Curse you, Tennyson!" Veggie King yelled. "You won't be leaving this battle alive!"

"That's what you said last time!" Heatblast began charging toward him. "Look who's still kicking your butt!"

"Certainly not you!"

A large vine sprouted from Veggie King's back and slammed into Heatblast as he was running, dazing him. The vine wrapped around Heatblast and threw him towards the remains of a brick wall. A pink energy field suddenly materialized in front of him, catching him and gradually sliding him towards the ground to reduce his momentum.

"You need to be more careful, Ben!" Gwen rebuked him, throwing a couple of mana disks that mowed through a row of vegetables. "You can't just overpower this guy!"

"Well duh, that's why I'm not Humongousaur." Heatblast replied. "But Swampfire got controlled by him last time I tried to use him, so we're stuck with brute-forcing it with these stupid plants."

"I know, but you need a different strategy when you're fighting Veggie King himself!" Gwen leaned to the side and decapitated a large beet approaching Heatblast from behind with a well-place mana disk.

"Like what?!"

"Enough of this!" Veggie King yelled. "You die NOW!"

A giant maw of thorned vines exploded out of the ground behind Heatblast and shot towards him. Heatblast grabbed Gwen and threw her out of the way moments before the maw slammed down on top of him.

"Ben!" Gwen shouted.

"Yes!" Veggie King cheered. "Finally, Tennyson is no more, and I can conquer Earth!"

A quiet mumbling was suddenly heard coming from underneath the pile of thorned vines.

"...What?" Veggie King's eye twitched.

Fireballs exploded out of the vines, burning them away to reveal a rather stunned Heatblast looking up at a mollusk-like humanoid alien wielding something that looked like a scan gun, which is where the fiery blasts were coming from.

"I said you're an idiot." It grumbled. "Since when has an attack like that ever killed any Ben Tennyson?"

"Who are you supposed to be?!" Veggie King demanded.

"The name's Attai Zehn, although right now I guess you could call me Ridejacker." The alien replied. "I'm just here to do my job."

"And what would that be?" Veggie King hissed.

"Nothing you need to know about." Ridejacker grabbed Heatblast by the collar and hoisted him to his feet, pushing him towards Veggie king. "You're the hero in this universe, you handle this."

"Are you mocking me?!" Veggie King roared. "You think you can interrupt I, Veggie King, and walk away ali-"

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"Your name." Ridejacker pointed at Veggie King. "Say your name again."

"I am the glorious VEGGIE KING!"

Ridejacker stared at Veggie King blankly for a few seconds before putting his arm out in front of him, aiming his gun directly at Veggie King's forehead.

"On second thought, I think I'll help kill you after all."

"You think you can kill me?!" Veggie King sneered. "You're nothing but a lowly fleshbag!"

Vines suddenly sprouted out from underneath Ridejacker, wrapping around his torso and his right arm.

"With the power of my superior flora army, lifeforms like you are little more than a candy bar just waiting to be snapped!"

The vines wrapped around Ridejacker began pulling in opposite directions, unsuccessfully attempting to wrench his arm off his body.

"You were saying?" Ridejacker sighed.

"Give me a couple seconds here!" Veggie King snapped. "Damn it, why are you so resilient?!"

"This species evolved to resist the forces of going through warp space and black holes on the outside of starships." Ridejacker replied. "You're not going to have much luck breaking it. You, on the other hand..."

Veggie King looked confused for a split second before a flaming punch exploded through his abdomen from behind, ripping a large hole into his body.

"You're roasted." Heatblast smirked.

Veggie King roared with pain and smacked Heatblast aside, clutching at the burnt cavity in his torso.

"This isn't over, Tennyson!" Veggie King hissed. "I will return, and when I do, EVERY LIVING FLESHBAG ON THIS PLANET WILL BE ERADICATED ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Veggie King's body warped itself into a pile of vines that slithered underground, with his surrounding army of vegetables quickly following suit. Ben breathed a sigh of relief and transformed back into human, with Gwen and Kevin running up to him in short order.

"Ben, are you okay?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ben replied, dusting himself off. "Right now, I think there are some more important questions we need to be asking."

The three of them looked over at Ridejacker, who pressed a button on the top of his scan gun. A green flash of light obscured his body, fading to reveal a tall, white-haired human wearing a green and white jumpsuit and a pair of glasses over yellow and blue heterochromatic eyes. He noticed the group staring at him and rolled his eyes.

"Well, guess I have to explain this all over again." He grumbled, crossing his arms. "What do you want to know?"

"A lot, but hold on a second." Ben held up his hand. "Let's talk about this somewhere more casual."

Ben, Gwen, and Kevin all sat on one side of a large table outside a Mr. Smoothy, with Attai seated opposite them. Ben casually sipped at a smoothy he was holding for a few moments before setting it down and looking at Attai intently.

"So, who are you, anyway?"

"Like I said earlier, Attai Zehn." Attai replied with a huff. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"That doesn't tell us much."

Attai rolled his eyes.

"Guter Gott ..." He grumbled. "What do you want from me here?"

"What's this 'job' you mentioned earlier?" Kevin asked with a stern glare.

"I scan timelines to create backups of them in the Cosmic Archives." Attai said, pulling out his scan gun. "That way, if they're ever destroyed, the Archivists can just restore them to their original state."

"What are the Cosmic Archives?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Good question." Attai sighed. "Best I can gather is that it's kinda like a library dimension at the center of the multiverse. Never been to it myself."

"Then how did you end up with this job?" Kevin questioned.

"Professor Paradox recruited me for it." Attai replied. "I assume you've heard of him."

"Professor Paradox, eh?"

A new voice chimed in from a few feet away, prompting the group to turn and look at the source. Said source turned out to be a pale, gangly man with black hair wearing a rather dapper tuxedo grinning at them maliciously. Ben immediately jumped out of his seat and activated the Omnitrix, hand hovering over the raised core of the watch.

"Timeking!" Ben yelled. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Does everyone in your stupid villain's gallery have a name ending in 'king'?" Attai asked dryly.

"Calm down, Tennyson, I'm not here to fight." Timeking stated in a strong British accent. "Yet."

"Okay, can you just leave or something, then?" Attai snapped. "I'm running out of patience as it is."

"Such a sharp-tongued whelp you are." Timeking sneered. "Forgive the intrusion, but I just had to see Paradox's new lapdog for myself."

"... Oh, I do not care for you." Attai grimaced. "You have some beef with Paradox or something?"

"In this world, I'm his mortal enemy." Timeking explained. "The Moriarty to his Sherlock, the Batman to his Joker, the Darth Vader to his Luke-"

"The dog piss on his shoe, yeah, got it." Attai grunted. "So you're basically just crappy Eon."

"I existed before Paradox even met Eon!" Timeking snapped.

"Yeah and Hydrox existed before Oreos, but you never hear about people dunking the former in their milk, do you?"

"Why you-!"

Timeking cut himself off by lunging at Attai, who swiftly jumped away from the table. Ben slammed down on the Omnitrix symbol and transformed into a skeletal, crystalline alien with a dark blue hue to its body.

"Cryptonite!"

Cryptonite jumped into battle, swinging his shard-like fists at Timeking, who was forced to dodge. Attai pressed a few buttons on his scan gun and swiped a card along the side, transforming into Ridejacker. Now faced with two opponents, Timeking opted to jump back and snap his fingers. Time slowed to a halt, leaving Timeking as the only one still moving.

"Pathetic." Timeking cackled. "All this time and Tennyson still fails to use his Tique-taque transformation in facing me. What an embarrasme-"

Timeking was rudely interrupted by Ridejacker suddenly unfreezing and decking him directly in the face.

"What the-" Timeking stumbled back a few feet. "How are you still moving?!"

"I'm a Timewalker just like you and Paradox, in case it wasn't obvious." Ridejacker replied. "Now come on. Let's dance."

Timeking snarled and fired a beam of purple energy at Ridejacker, who simply shrugged off the attack and began walking towards him.

"Why aren't you aging?!" Timeking snapped.

"I am." Ridejacker cracked his knuckles. "It just so happens that this alien species doesn't degenerate with age. Comes in pretty handy since they're dragged through wormholes and warp drives on a regular basis."

"I see." Timeking seethed. "You're a tricky one, aren't you?"

"No, you're just dumb." Attai pointed towards Cryptonite. "If that alien's anything like Diamondhead, I have to assume your aging powers won't affect it either, which is probably what Ben had in mind when he picked it."

"Are you really willing to give him that much benefit of the doubt?"

"More than I'm willing to give you any."

Timeking growled and shot a time beam at Ridejacker's feet, reversing the age of the road beneath him and turning it back into a sticky tar that stopped him in his tracks.

"Try attacking me now, brat!" Timeking sneered.

"Okay."

The tips of Ridejacker's fingers flipped open, shooting out long, wire-like tendrils that grabbed Timeking's arm and threw him to the ground. Timeking snarled and pulled out a small letter opener, using it to hack at the tendrils and forcing them to retract.

"Looks like you aren't invincible all over!" Timeking laughed.

"Son of a-" Ridejacker hissed in pain. "Alright, I am beyond done with you."

Ridejacker raised his right hand into the air, summoning the CataloGun and punching a few numbers into it. Two cards appeared at the side of the gun, allowing Attai to grab them with his free hand and shove one into the slot on the back.

"Well, here goes nothing..."

Ridejacker slid the remaining card through the side reader and shot into the palm of his left hand. A green light flashed from his body, and when it faded, he was still Ridejacker, but with what you could call a new accessory.

"What on Earth..." Timeking began. "Is... is your arm a gun?"

Ridejacker brandished his right arm towards Timeking, emphasizing that the lower half of his arm had indeed been replaced with a rather hefty gatling gun.

"Technically, I'm not supposed to scan superficial items since it gives the Archivists more work." Ridejacker stated. "That being said, I couldn't resist scanning this one."

Ridejacker hoisted up his right arm and began firing a rapid stream of bullets at Timeking, who put up a shield of temporal energy that aged the bullets to dust as they hit.

"Useless, useless, useless!" Timeking cackled. "Did you really think you could-"

Timeking was abruptly dragged into the air by several tendrils that had wrapped themselves around his ankles, hanging him upside-down a good few meters off the ground.

"No, I didn't." Ridejacker said. "I did figure I could distract you long enough to do that, though."

Timeking snarled and pulled out his letter opener, but Ridejacker began slamming him into the ground before he could use it, forcing him to drop it before flinging him into the brick wall of a building across the street. Timeking groaned and looked up to see Ridejacker advancing towards him, gatling gun at the ready.

"Well, this is a sub-optimal situation to stay in." Timeking grumbled. "I think I made my point."

"What point?"

Timeking vanished in a flash of temporal energy, restoring the normal flow of time. Cryptonite stumbled forward a bit, disoriented by the sudden return of movement.

"Where's Timeking?" Cryptonite asked, transforming back into Ben in a flash of light. "What happened?"

"No, seriously." Ridejacker, ignoring Ben, snapped towards the location Timeking had disappeared from. "What point?!"

"...Huh?"

"You beat Timeking by yourself?!" Ben exclaimed.

"Not really." Attai grumbled. "He just kind of ran away."

"Still, I'm impressed." Ben said. "He's not someone you want to screw around with."

"If you say so."

"So, back to your 'scanning timelines' job." Kevin interjected. "Are you supposed to scan this one?"

"Yep." Attai sighed. "Unfortunately, I have to wait for the Key Event to happen before I can."

"What's the 'Key Event'?" Gwen asked.

"Every parallel world has a few Key Events that are subtly bound to every other event in their respective timelines." Attai explained. "In this case, the Key Event I'm supposed to scan is Ben here defeating that plant monster."

"You mean Veggie King?" Ben said.

"Ugh...yes, 'Veggie King'." Attai spat. "Knew there was a reason Paradox didn't tell me its name before sending me here."

"How is defeating Veggie King a Key Event?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Basically, there are two main outcomes that everything that has previously ocurred in this timeline can evolve into here." Attai pulled up his scan gun and pushed a few buttons on the top, bringing up a hologram display of a branching timeline. "If Ben beats Veggie King, the timeline continues as normal."

"And if he doesn't?" Kevin asked.

"Veggie King eventually destroys all non-plant-based life in the universe."

"He can do that?!" Ben grimaced.

"Not right now, but if you don't stop him, he'll be able to do it eventually." Attai took down the hologram. "That's what I'm able to gather, at least."

"Alright, then we need to find him, and fast." Ben stated firmly. "Come on, let's get going."

"Have fun with that." Attai said.

"You're not coming?" Gwen asked.

"Not right now; despite how it may seem, I'm not much of a fighter." Attai replied. "I can fight, but it's not a main part of my job."

"Come on Attai, this is serious!" Ben insisted. "Besides, don't you need to scan me beating Veggie King anyway?"

"Not necessarily." Attai fiddled with his scan gun a bit. "I could scan Veggie King beating you and it would still count."

"But if that happens, the whole universe is gonna die!"

"So what?"

Ben froze.

"...What do you mean, 'so what'?"

"I mean exactly what I said." Attai shot Ben a flat look. "So what if your universe dies? There are a million others like it."

"What makes you think this one is worth less than any of the other ones, huh?!" Ben snapped.

"Nothing." Attai shrugged. "What makes you think it's worth more than any of them?"

"You-"

Ben began walking towards Attai, but was stopped by Gwen grabbing his shoulder.

"Cool off, Ben." Gwen said. "This guy's just still in his 'edgy teenager' phase."

"You're one to talk." Attai scoffed. "Besides, I'm not being 'edgy', I'm being realistic. If there are so many nearly identical copies of a given universe, what does it matter if that universe is gone?"

"Alright, object lesson." Gwen said.

Gwen flung a mana disk at Attai, catching him in the ribs and knocking him to the ground.

"Son of a-" Attai scrambled to his feet. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Who cares?" Gwen replied. "There's a bunch of versions of you out there who didn't just get knocked over."

"That's not..." Attai paused in thought for a few moments. "...Screw off."

"Hey, this is engaging and all, but we've got a genocidal plant monster on the loose." Kevin interjected. "You think we should do something about that soon?"

"What are you supposed to do right now?" Attai asked. "You don't even know where he is."

As soon as Attai finished speaking, an explosion occurred in the distance, followed shortly by a large plume of smoke.

"I have a pretty solid guess." Ben replied.

"That is...stupidly convenient." Attai grumbled.

"One thing that's nice about the dumber bad guys:" Kevin said. "They don't waste any time trying to be sneaky."

"So, last chance." Ben turned to Attai. "Are you coming with us or not?"

"Not." Attai pressed down on a hidden button on the side of a small box-like holster hanging off the right side of his belt. "I have my own ride."

A green and white motorcycle mirroring the aesthetic of Attai's suit appeared next to him, with a helmet automatically generating over his head.

"Okay, I need to get one of those." Kevin muttered, admiring the build of the motorcycle.

"Focus, Kevin." Gwen chided. "Come on, let's go."

Ben, Gwen, and Kevin piled into Kevin's car and drove off towards the plume of smoke. Attai just stood around for a few seconds before sighing and mounting his bike.

"Well, not like I have anything better to do for the next few minutes."

Attai pulled into the parking lot of an amusement park currently in the middle of a screaming panic. Scared crowds were practically stomping over each other to get out of the park and get to their cars, an unfortunate irony in the fact that it made getting out of the park a much slower process. Kevin's car was parked near the gate, and Attai could spot Ben, Gwen, and Kevin trying to wade in through the crowd.

"Fantastic." Attai grumbled, pulling out his gun. "I don't have time for this."

Attai summoned the Heatblast card and slid it into a slot on the dashboard of his motorcycle. His motorcycle converted to a maroon color scheme with yellowish-orange flame accents, with a pheonix head appearing on the front of the bike and two flaming, bird-like wings emerging from the midsection.

Attai muttered something none too positive about the garish look of the bike before hitting the accelerator and taking to the air. He flew over the park gates and swooped down to grab Ben, tossing him on the back of his bike.

"Woah, what the-" Ben yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"Getting you into the park." Attai rolled his eyes. "You need to defeat Veggie King."

"But Gwen and Kevin-"

"Will catch up." Attai snapped. "I've seen other versions of them in action. They can hold their own."

"I guess, but-"

Ben was interrupted as a massive vine sprung forth from the ground below and grabbed the motorcycle, throwing it to the ground. The bike dissipated as it hit the earth, leaving Attai and Ben unceremoniously tumbling away.

"FOOLS!" Veggie King rose out of the ground in front of them, cackling to himself. "Did you think you could sneak up on the glorious VEGGIE KING?!"

An army of monstrous humanoid vegetables sprouted up from the ground, surrounding Attai and Ben.

"Yeah, what was your plan here?" Ben asked Attai.

"Zip it." Attai hissed.

"Didn't have one, got it."

"Do you have any last words before my army of vegetables tears you limb from limb?!" Veggie King smirked.

"Yeah." Ben said, pulling up the Omnitrix. "Cannonbolt!"

Ben slammed down on the Omnitrix dial, transforming into Cannonbolt. He immediately curled up into a ball and began smashing through the army of vegetables, pounding them into mulch.

"Good luck catching me now, Veggie Jer-"

A series of interwoven vines sprang out of the ground in front of Cannonbolt, using his own momentum to toss him around towards a teacup ride. Stragglers screamed and ran as Cannonbolt smashed into the structure, utterly demolishing it and transforming back into Ben in a green flash.

"You've got to be kidding me." Attai groaned.

Attai slammed the gatling gun card into the back of his gun and began firing in a straight line, clearing a path through the vegetable army with a volley of bullets. He reached Ben and pulled him out of the wreckage, yanking him to his feet.

"Take this seriously!" Attai exclaimed. "You're not going to last long enough to trigger the Key Event if you keep going like this!"

"I am, I just-"

Ben cut himself off as he heard screams coming from nearby. He ran towards the source of the screams and found a couple that had been left behind being approached by several evil vegetables. He charged in towards them, raising the Omnirix as he did so, but one of the vegetables turned around and knocked him to the ground before he could transform. Right as the vegetable moved in for the finishing blow, a round of gatling fire tore through the group of plants, leaving them dead on the ground.

"Get out of here!" Attai yelled to the couple, marching into view. "In case it wasn't obvious, you shouldn't be here right now!"

The couple's only response was nodding and fleeing the area as fast as they could. As soon as they were out of sight, Attai turned around and stomped towards Ben.

"As for you..."

Attai grabbed Ben by the collar and jerked him to his feet, glaring directly into his eyes.

"''Was zum Teufel '' are you trying to do by saving random civilians?!" Attai yelled. "You need to be fighting Veggie King!"

"What's the point of fighting him if everyone I'm trying to protect from him dies?!" Ben snapped. "I know it might seem meaningless to you, but these are people's lives we're talking about here!"

"Oh, for the love of..." Attai pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what, I'll evacuate everyone if it means you go fight Veggie King. You burn him up, the people are safe, the event gets scanned, everyone's happy."

"How am I supposed to trust you with that?" Ben glared.

"Because it's part of my job." Attai spoke with an air of determination mixed with annoyance. "I may not care about these people, but I care about getting that Key Event scanned, and if I have to save everyone in this park to make that happen, then that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Ben stared intently at Attai for a few seconds.

"...Alright." Ben said. "Get everyone out of the park. Make sure they're safe."

Attai nodded and summoned his gun, transforming into Ridejacker and running off into the rest of the park. Ben watched him leave and sighed, turning back to the approaching vegetable army.

"Okay, let's do this." Ben raised his hand above the Omnitrix dial. "It's hero time!"

Chunks of vegetables and sprays of their juices went flying everywhere as Ridejacker pulled back his tendrils, using them as makeshift wire saws to cut apart the approaching vegetable monsters.

"I am getting really sick of these guys." Ridejacker hissed, cutting through a straggling vegetable. "Just wither up and die already!"

There was a scream from behind Ridejacker, and he turned to find the family he was protecting being grabbed by more vegetable monsters springing up from underground.

"You gotta be kidding me!"

Ridejacker's tendrils shot towards the vegetables emerging from the earth, wrapping around their bodies and violently tossing them further back into the park.

"Come on, the exit's close by!" Ridejacker yelled to the family. "They aren't leaving the park for now!"

Ridejacker quickly guided the family to the exit, extending his tendrils in a sphere-shaped "bubble" around them to instantly cut down any incoming vegetables. Once they reached the exit, Ridejacker retracted his tendrils back into his fingertips and began rubbing them together.

"Crap, I'm starting to cramp up here." He muttered to himself. "At least that's the last of-"

"Hang on a second..." The family's mother, a woman in her mid-30s began panicking. "Where's Samantha?!"

Ridejacker stared at her blankly for a few seconds while attempting to process this statement.

"...I am going to have an aneurysm because of this, I swear to God."

"Samantha! Hey, Samantha! Where the hell are you?!"

Ridejacker ran through the park, frantically searching every nook and cranny for the lost child.

"Dammit, she might not be coming out because I'm an alien." Ridejacker tsked. "That's going to make this a whole lot harder."

Ridejacker glanced around to make sure the area was clear before transforming back into a human, keeping his gun at the ready.

"Samantha! Samantha?!"

Attai continued running up and down the winding pathways of the amusement park, fending off the ocassional vegetable ambush with his scan gun.

"I must look like an idiot." Attai grumbled to himself. "Where the hell is this stupid kid anywa-"

Attai cut himself off as he rounded a corner and spotted a crying child standing alone in front of a large drop tower. He started to move towards her, only to stop as he looked around the area.

"No vegetables..." He muttered. "That kid's not exactly being stealthy, so why aren't they attacking?"

Attai's question was swiftly answered by the drop tower suddenly being uprooted and sent hurtling downward towards the kid.

"Samantha, get out of the way!" Attai yelled.

Samantha caught sight of the tower toppling towards her and froze in place, staring at it as it fell closer and closer towards her.

"Verdammt, why'd I have to get stuck saving people like this?" Attai winced.

He leapt into action, running towards Samantha and shielding her with his body right before the drop tower smashed into them. A group of vegetables ran out from behind the tower and began dancing around, celebrating the results of their handiwork.

A shelled fist suddenly broke through the wreckage of the toppled tower, shortly followed by a mass of tendrils coming from it and heaving up chunks of debris. The vegetables froze as an unharmed Ridejacker holding an equally unharmed Samantha began stomping towards them, heaving from the effort of lifting heavy chunks of metal.

The vegetables began backing away, only to find themselves quickly sliced apart by more of Ridejacker's tendrils. He breathed an exhausted sigh and set down Samantha, collapsing onto the ground shortly after.

"Listen...kid..." Ridejacker groaned. "Next time you see a large object heading directly towards you...try to dodge, okay?"

Samantha looked confused for a few seconds before tearing up and starting to cry again.

"I want my mommy!" She sobbed.

"...I'm trying to lecture a five-year-old." Ridejacker grumbled. "Why did I think this would work?"

Ridejacker stumbled through the exit of the park towards the waiting family, covered in splatters and stains from countless numbers of slaughtered vegetables. He carried a frightened Samantha, still crying her eyes out and being generally very loud.

"Hey, you people." Ridejacker said wearily. "I think this is yours."

"Oh, thank god!" The mother ran over and took Samantha into her arms. "Samantha, you're safe!"

"Mommy!" Samantha bawled, clutching onto her mother. "It was scary!"

"I know, sweetie, I know." Samantha's mother began softly crying tears of relief. "You're okay now. You're okay."

Ridejacker stared at the display in front of him with a confused expression hidden by the mask-like shell covering his face.

"...That kid really means that much to you?" He asked.

"Of course she does!" The mother held Samantha closer, continuing to cry. "She's my daughter! She's irreplaceable!"

"Irreplaceable, huh?" Ridejacker muttered.

After a few moments of standing still to recover his energy, Ridejacker walked back into the park, heading towards the last place he had seen Ben.

"In any case..." He said to himself. "I still have a job to do."

"I must admit, I'm impressed." Veggie King sneered. "The fact that three mere meatbags were enough to destroy my forces is quite the improbable feat."

"It's over, Veggie King!" Ben, transformed into Heatblast, yelled up at Veggie King, who sat on the top hill of a roller coaster. "You don't have an army of vegetables to fall back on anymore!"

"You're right." Veggie King chuckled. "It's a good thing I have a little something else up my sleeve."

The ground suddenly began shaking, caving open in a few spots and unleashing an army of humanoid fruits, quickly surrounding Heatblast, Gwen, and Kevin.

"Since when do you use fruit?!" Kevin snapped.

"Since I suggested it to him."

Timeking suddenly popped into existence next to Veggie King, grinning down at the three as the army of fruit moved in.

"Timeking?!" Heatblast yelled. "You're working with Veggie King?!"

"A collaboration of kings!" Timeking flung his arms into the air. "An enthralling idea, wouldn't you say?!"

"That explains how Veggie King was able to spawn his armies so quickly." Gwen exclaimed. "Timeking must have sped up time for him!"

"Correct!" Timeking cackled. "Quite the brilliant setup, if I do say so myself!"

"I hate to say it, but I don't think we can handle both of these guys and a fresh army." Heatblast said. "We need a plan, and fast."

"You won't get the chance to set one up!" Veggie King shouted. "Fruits, ATTACK!"

A volley of energy blasts suddenly rang through the area, mowing down several rows of evil fruits. Everyone assembled turned to find Attai walking towards them, his scan gun at the ready and loaded with the gatling card in its back slot.

"Attai!" Heatblast called over to him. "Did you get everyone out?!"

"Of course I did." Attai scoffed. "I'm not an amateur."

"Oh, piss off already!" Timeking yelled. "You don't have anything to do with this beyond being annoying!"

"Well, I'm about to get a whole lot more annoying." Attai shot back. "Because I'm going to help send you to hell."

"If this is about the name thing, just leave it be already!"

"Sorry, but this time I'm fighting for more of a reason than hating your idiotic monikers." Attai pulled the gatling card out of his gun and replaced it with a Heatblast card.

"Oh?" Timeking hissed. "And what would that be?"

"Tennyson." Attai looked towards Heatblast, ignoring Timeking. "Let me be clear about this: I don't care about the people of this world. Not in the slightest."

Attai groaned and scratched his head.

"That being said... they sure seem to mean everything to each other."

"What's your point?" Timeking grumbled.

"My job, in basic summary, is to preserve things." Attai replied. "I don't see the same meaning in them these people do, but it's something they seem to think is important. That being the case, I'm going to preserve that meaning, even if I don't understand it. If that means I have to fight to protect it..."

Attai shot fireballs through several fruit monsters surrounding Heatblast, Gwen, and Kevin.

"Then I guess I'll just fight like hell."



"Now that's more like it!" Heatblast pumped his fist in the air. "Let's kick their butts!"

"Tennyson, do you have any fire aliens other than Heatblast or Swampfire unlocked?" Attai asked.

"Well, I do have one, but I don't know how useful it would be here." Heatblast replied.

"Turn into it." Attai said. "I can scan it and use it to give my gun an extra boost."

"Whatever you say." Heatblast shrugged.

Heatblast twisted the Omnitrix dial on his chest, transforming into a ghost-like humanoid alien whose body was seemingly entirely composed of flames.

"Heatspecter!" The new alien yelled.

Attai pulled up his gun and scanned Heatspecter, generating a card that printed out of the back slot of the gun.

"So, what's this one do?" Attai asked.

Heatspecter dove into the ground, manifesting as a large red flame that charred the dirt it traveled on. The flame darted through the army of fruits, incinerating a select few that weren't able to get out of the way in time.

"You see what I mean?" Heatspecter rematerialized near Attai. "This guy kinda sucks."

"I think you're just not taking advantage of him properly." Attai replied. "Can you make a ring of fire around the fruits?"

"Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Start doing that." Attai pulled up the Ridejacker card and ran it through the side slot of the gun. "I have an idea."

"Not so fast!" Timeking snapped, apparating in front of Attai and knocking away his scan gun. "First, I'm getting payback for what happened at the Mr Smoothy!"

"Get going!" Attai yelled at Heatspecter. "I'll take care of Timeking!"

Heatspecter nodded and dove back into the ground as Timeking snarled and grabbed Attai by the throat.

"You'll 'take care of me', will you?" Timeking tightened his grip around Attai's neck. "Enlighten me, just how do you plan to do that without your precious gun?"

Attai punched Timeking in the gut, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to let go. Attai ducked and rolled over to his gun, firing off several shots at Timeking.

"I don't." Attai stated.

Timeking growled and swiped at the incoming shots with a handful of temporal energy, causing them to dissipate before reaching him. Attai quickly transformed into Ridejacker and shot his tendrils towards the roller coaster Veggie King was perched on, wrapping them around the rails.

"Tennyson, are you done yet?!" Ridejacker yelled.

"Just finished!" Heatspecter flew out of the ground. "Go for it!"

Timeking lunged at Ridejacker, who started retracting his tendrils back into his fingers, launching him away from the attack. He hit the top of the rollercoaster at high speed and latched on to one of the bars making up the framework of the ride, using his momentum to swing himself around through the holes in the structure and shoot himself up into the air. He reached the peak of his momentum directly above the army of fruit, now trapped in one large circle by Heatspecter's flames.

Ridejacker summoned his gun and slammed the Heatspecter card into the back slot, punching in a new code on the number pad.

"Endangriff! " The gun announced in a mechanical voice. "Heatspecter! Bitte seien sie vorsichtig! "

Ridejacker wasted no time in pulling the trigger, shooting a massive stream of ghostly flames from the firing end of the scan gun. As soon as the fire hit the ground, it began spreading out across the earth until it hit the flames Ben as Heatspecter had left behind. The encircled army of fruit was completely consumed by fire, burning to a crisp and leaving behind the scent of charred sucrose.

"No!" Veggie King yelled. "My backup army!"

Ridejacker rather ungracefully slammed into the ground in the middle of the blaze and ran out of it as quickly as possible, covered in the juices of fried fruits.

"I feel like a produce section in the aftermath of a natural disaster." He groaned.

"DAMN YOU!" Veggie King wailed. "DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

"Hold on a moment there, my dim compatriot." Timeking apparated next to Veggie King wearing a wide smirk. "You forget, I can speed up the growth of your armies. We can make another one right here and now and CRUSH Tennyson once and for all!"

"Oh, right." Veggie King abruptly settled down. "Do that, please."

"My pleasure."

Timeking extended a hand towards Veggie King, only for a red flame to come speeding up one of the rollercoaster's rails straight towards him. Timeking hissed and turned to face the oncoming fire, which jumped out of the ground and rematerialized into Heatspecter.

"You're going down this time, Timeking!" Heatspecter yelled, reeling back to throw a punch.

"I don't think so, Tennyson!" Timeking growled, summoning a wave of temporal energy. "I'm going to wipe you from existence!"

Right before the energy wave hit Heatspecter, a green energy shot hit his side, abruptly transforming him into Ridejacker. The time wave passed through Ridejacker harmlessly, and he took the opportunity to deck Timeking right in the kisser.

"Thanks for the save!" Ridejacker shot a thumbs up to Attai, who returned the thumbs up before summoning his motorcycle.

"Damn that Timewalker!" Timeking snapped. "I should have known Paradox's dog would give me trouble!"

"Oh, you've got a lot more trouble than just him to deal with right now."

Ridejacker twisted the Omnitrix dial on his chest, transforming into a single-horned, lanky, twenty-foot giant of an alien with no eyes and an alternating demonic and angelic appearance.

"Angelion!" The new alien yelled, floating into the air and flaring out a pair of wings, one bat-like and one bird-like.

"What fresh idiocy is this?!" Timeking yelled.

"TENNYSON!" Veggie King roared, extending several vines towards Angelion at high speeds.

Angelion dodged the vines and grabbed onto one that shot past his face, yanking Veggie King into the air. Swirling beams of light and darkness began swirling around his horn, growing into a mass of energy that became hard to look at.

"I don't use this guy much, but right now I think he's warranted." Angelion stated. "Kevin, catch!"

Angelion shot the energy twisting around his horn at Veggie King and let go of his vines, sending him hurtling towards the ground. Kevin pulled a chunk of metal out of his pocket, covering his skin in the substance and running to intercept Veggie King's trajectory. As Veggie King approached the ground, Kevin let loose a metallic punch, puncturing Veggie King's chest and blowing him into a million pieces.

"Little more warning would be nice next time, Ben!" Kevin shouted.

"Sorry!" Angelion yelled back. "Had to think quick!"

Timeking snarled and raised his hand into the air, but was swiftly intercepted by Attai, who had ridden his motorcycle up the rollercoaster and come up behind Timeking, smacking him off the ride.

"Nice timing." Angelion said.

"Save it." Attai replied, quickly scanning Angelion. "Veggie King isn't down for the count yet."

"Seriously?!"

The chunks of Veggie King's body that had been splattered across the ground began rolling towards each other, amalgamating into a mass of plant matter that took shape into a very angry Veggie King. Timeking apparated next to him, apparently none the worse for wear but somehow even more ticked off.

"How am I supposed to keep this guy down?!" Angelion warbled.

"He's a plant, remember?" Attai said. "Torch him until there's nothing left. I'll handle Timeking."

"What are you going to do?" Angelion asked. "His time powers keep blocking our attacks."

"I didn't just scan you for no reason." Attai replied. "It's a bit of a gamble, but I think it should work. Now..."

Attai swiped the Heatblast card through the side slot of his scan gun and shot Angelion with it, transforming him back into Heatblast.

"Get down there and make Smokey the Bear cry."

"Smokey the what?" Heatblast looked confused.

"You don't have Smokey in this-" Attai shook his head. "Look, never mind that, just go beat the piss out of the plant."

"Should've just said that in the first place!" Heatblast cracked his knuckles and leaped off the rollercoaster.

Attai rolled his eyes and revved up his motorcycle, taking a flying leap off the rollercoaster himself and heading towards Timeking.

"You two okay?" Heatblast ran up to Gwen and Kevin, both taking cover from a volley of attacks by Veggie King underneath Gwen's shield.

"Yeah, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this shield up!" Gwen groaned. "Do something!"

"One 'something' coming right up!" Heatblast grinned and bolted towards Veggie King, drawing back his fist in preparation to deliver a flaming punch.

Meanwhile, Timeking was being kept busy by Attai continuously drifting in a circle around him, skirting past every blast of temporal energy he shot his way.

"Get off that damn bike and fight me already!" Timeking snapped.

"If you insist."

Attai aimed his motorcycle at Timeking and jumped off of it, pulling out his gun as he did so. Timeking rolled out of the way of the motorcycle and turned back to face Attai, finding his opponent aiming his gun at him with a mass of black and white energy swirling around the end.

"Endangriff!" The gun announced. "Angelion! Bitte seien sie vorsichtig!"

"No you don't!" Timeking hissed, shooting his hand into the air.

Timeking snapped his fingers right as Attai fired the attack, graying out the area around them and stopping time. To Timeking's surprise and ultimate dismay, the gun's attack continued towards him anyway, smashing into his body like a ton of bricks and sending him flying a good few meters. With Timeking's concentration broken, time resumed, allowing the fight to continue.

"...H...how?" Timeking whispered weakly.

"Oh damn, you're still alive?" Attai whistled. "That definitely would've killed a normal human."

"How?!"

"Physics, blödhammel ." Attai rolled his eyes. "Temporal powers distort the medium of spacetime, affecting anything with mass. Pure light and shadow are massless by nature, so they aren't affected when time gets screwed with. How do you think we can see when you stop time, du fickfehler?"

"Damn...you..."

After this last defiant statement, Timeking's eyes rolled back into his head and he fell unconscious, leaving Attai the only one standing between the two.

"Welp, better get ready to scan." Attai sighed, walking over to his motorcycle lying on the ground. "Seems like Tennyson's almost done."

Heatblast punched wildly at Veggie King, who blocked each attack with thick walls of vines that sprang up from the ground. One vine emerged behind Heatblast and grabbed him by the ankle, tossing him back towards Gwen and Kevin.

"Ben..." Gwen started.

"Yeah, I know, I know." Heatblast grumbled.

"If you have something up your sleeve, you should probably pull it out pretty quick, Tennyson." Kevin pointed towards Veggie King, who was now rapidly approaching the three.

"I do have an idea, but I'll probably time out the Omnitrix doing it." Heatblast pulled himself to his feet. "Gwen, shield yourself and Kevin. I need to get this right the first go around, and it's going to get pretty intense."

"Right." Gwen nodded and put up a mana shield around herself and Kevin.

"TENNYSON!" Veggie King roared. "This day will be your last!"

"Hey, now..." Heatblast rolled his shoulders and reached for the Omnitrix dial. "That's my line."

Veggie King snarled and lunged at Heatblast, who propelled himself into the air with a burst of flames and twisted the Omnitrix dial, transforming into Diamondhead. Diamondhead shifted his arms into spikes, using the extra momentum provided by his dense body to fall towards Veggie King and slice him in half, landing behind his bisected opponent.

Vines grew out of Veggie King's lower and upper halves, dragging them together so they could heal. By the time Veggie King turned around, however, Diamondhead had already transformed into Big Chill and was hovering ominously above him.

"Chill out." Big Chill wheezed.

Big Chill shot his ice breath at Veggie King, thoroughly freezing him before he could react. He wasted no time in landing and turning the Omnitrix dial again, transforming into Echo Echo. Echo Echo cloned himself several times and launched a sonic attack at the frozen Veggie King, shattering him into numerous tiny pieces. Echo Echo's duplicates disappeared as he turned the dial, transforming into Heatblast one last time.

"Sorry, Veggie King, but this time..."

Heatblast unleashed a massive blast of flames that consumed the icy remains of Veggie King, burning them away completely in bursts of steam and smoke.

"...Your grass is past."

A yellow scan beam flashed across Heatblast and the ashes of Veggie King, shortly followed by Attai walking onto the scene.

"That was one of the worst one-liners I've ever heard." Attai grunted. "It didn't even make sense."

"It totally did in my head." Heatblast rebutted as the Omnitrix timed out, transforming him back into Ben. "Besides, not every witty remark has to be perfect."

"Not every one has to be terrible either, but here you are anyway."

"Now hang on a minute!"

Ben and Attai continued arguing back and forth as Gwen and Kevin watched from a distance.

"We should probably stop them, right?" Gwen said.

"Nah, let 'em be." Kevin shrugged. "This is way more entertaining."

Ben, Gwen, and Kevin stood next to Kevin's car as Attai pressed a few buttons on his scan gun, summoning a unique card.

"What's that one?" Ben asked.

"This is your universe card." Attai flashed the card at Ben. "All timelines, or 'Dimensions', in Earth 1121-A are now preserved in the Cosmic Archives."

"Earth 1121-A?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"You world." Attai sighed. "According to the sorting system of the Archives, at any rate."

"I guess that means your job here is done, huh?" Kevin said.

"Yep." Attai pressed the button on his holster, summoning his motorcycle. "No point in sticking around."

"Hey, Attai, before you go, I wanted to say something." Ben said.

Attai sighed and hung his head for a second before turning to face Ben.

"What is it?"

"I know it's not something you're interested in, but..." Ben paused for a moment. "You'd make a better hero than you think."

Attai stared at Ben for a few moments before scoffing and getting on his motorcycle.

"What kind of nonsense is that?" Attai said. "I'm just another guy doing his job."

Attai revved up his bike and drove off into the distance, dissolving from view in a green flash.

"You could at least take the compliment!" Ben yelled.

"I think he did." Gwen said. "In his own weird way."

As the sun set on a battlefield littered with broken chunks of fruits and vegetables that more so seemed to indicate a food fight had occurred than a battle for the fate of the Earth, a small bud sprouted out of the ground and gradually opened to reveal a very tiny and very irate Veggie King.

"This isn't over, Tennyson!" The small Veggie King screamed at the top of his squeaky, barely audible voice. "I will have my fruity vengeance upon thee!"

Several sets of approaching footsteps interrupted Veggie King's enraged raving. He turned to find several masked soldiers in black uniforms adorned with red swastikas marching towards him. Leading them was a man in burnt reddish power armor wielding a rather large rifle.

"Who are you people?!" Veggie King demanded.

"I believe that should be obvious from our uniforms." The man in power armor replied in a sophisticated voice somewhat muffled by his helmet. "Then again, you are an alien, so you may not recognize them."

"I certainly don't!" Veggie King huffed. "What do you want?!"

"Your abilities." The man in power armor replied. "As... odd as they are, they have impressive potential."

"So what, you want me to join you?!" Veggie King snapped.

"Hardly."

The man in power armor aimed his rifle at Veggie King and pulled the trigger, creating a red wave that scanned his miniscule form.

"An abomination like you has no right existing in God's domain." The man in power armor said, gesturing for his men to surround Veggie King. "Your power, on the other hand, could be very useful."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Veggie King yelled. "What did you just do?!"

"Don't worry about it." The man in power armor stood up and began walking away. "We'll be putting it to much better use than you ever could."

The group of soldiers surrounding Veggie King pulled out small flamethrower-like devices in one swift motion and immediately proceeded to set Veggie King ablaze. The roar of the flames drowned out the vegetable's dying screams, but not by that much. A few feet away, the man in power armor folded a touchscreen out of the side of his rifle, tapping on the screen a few times before grimacing under his helmet.

"Sir." One of the soldiers broke away from formation and walked over to him. "Should we begin the Earth-purging process?"

"Don't bother." The man in the armor folded the touchscreen back into his rifle. "It's already been scanned."

"I see. How troublesome." The soldier replied. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we running into a bizarrely high number of scanned Earths lately?"

"You're correct." The man in the armor said. "At this point, we have to seriously consider the possibility that the Archivists have somehow obtained an agent capable of using our technology."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know, and I don't care." The man in armor turned and gestured for the soldiers to cease fire. "If they really do have such an agent, then the solution is simple."

The man in power armor walked up to the charred corpse of Veggie King and stomped it into dust, scattering some of its ashes to the wind. "That agent just needs to die."