Omnitranyl (Ben 10 Alien Force)

Accustomed to always seeing the girl following him around as an obedient assistant, Azmuth found the image of Eunice in front of him strange. With her back to him, the young woman was preparing to advance against the prison guards.

Was Unitrix always so tall? He thought.

Azmuth stared at the mecarmofo cube in his hands. He wished he had time to find a better solution to the situation, but unfortunately he didn't. And more than that, it seemed that the young Unitrix already had a plan prepared in case something went wrong. A plan that consisted in sacrificing herself for his sake. Not much different from what he had done...

"Go now!" said Eunice before taking off at a run down the corridor towards the guards.

"Eunice, wait!"

But it was too late. Azmuth could only watch the girl advance at high speed, bouncing off the walls and incapacitating the Galvanians along the way.

The scientist approached Max Tennyson, who lay motionless on the floor. According to the armor's sensors, the human was alive and that would have to suffice for the moment. However, there was no telling when a new crisis might arise again...

Azmuth pressed a button on the cube and a black liquid with green circuits began to coat his body. In a matter of moments the scientist of about thirty centimeters acquired the stature of a two-meter tall galvanic mechamorph. Carefully, Azmuth lifted Max (also coated in the metallic liquid) and supported him on his back. For different reasons, neither of them were able to activate their armor to warlike form, leaving them only a sneaky escape, at least until they reached the ship.

The scientist heard a loud bang coming from the corridor, then silence. The sounds of gunfire or the jet packs of the guards seemed muffled. Someone - and Azmuth knew who - had sealed off the corridor somehow.

Azmuth tightened his arms around the Magistrate on his back and headed toward the exit.

***

Eunice jumped from side to side, dodging the shots coming her way. Using the DNA of Musca domestica, she reacted to the environment with a reflex that bordered on the irritating. She jumped towards a wall and in mid-air replaced the DNA, allowing herself to stick and run laterally to gravity like a good Hemidactylus mabouia.

"You can't escape, human!" shouted a guard. "Come on, give up this stupid idea!"

Eunice didn't answer, she kept running up the wall, towards the prison ceiling. Like a swarm of bees, the guards with jetpacks chased her, shooting incessantly.

"Bring in another armored car!" The guard ordered, "She's far away from the other prisoners, this is the opportunity we need to shoot her and get it over at once!"

Eunice realized that the situation was beginning to change on the ground, yet she continued without stopping moving for a single second. Her plan was to keep the guards as busy as possible to allow Azmuth and Max to escape. A plan that bordered on suicide, as she knew that at any moment the guards would give up trying to capture her alive.

A new armored vehicle entered the wide corridor of the cells and began to load one of its projectiles.

It seemed that the moment had arrived.

The young woman jumped, trying to cross from one side of the corridor to the other, drawing an arc through the air. The armored car followed the girl's movement and then fired. The luminous projectile passed through the surrounding flying guards and hit Eunice still in mid-flight.

The girl's body was thrown toward the far end of the corridor. With the impact, shattering and squeaking sounds were heard echoing through the air. A red light flashed insistently, warning those present that the security of one of the cells had been breached.

***

Thanks to Eunice's confusion, Azmuth and Max managed to walk the remaining way without being bothered by prison staff. Every now and then a sudden sound would approach, forcing the scientist to hide in some administration room that was unlocked. With the sounding of the alarms, all civilian employees had been evacuated so as not to be in the middle of a possible crossfire.

But now there was no point in hiding anymore. As soon as they turned the next corner they would be facing the prison entrance. The same one as the metal detectors from before. This time, a group of ten guards stood heavily armed and ready to shoot any organism that crossed their field of vision.

I need a distraction... Thought Azmuth.

The scientist walked back a few meters as he thought of a plan. He returned to one of the administration rooms and supported the Magistrate on the floor, with his back to a wall. Azmuth approached one of the computers. A partially typed document was displayed on the screen, with all the legal and difficult terms that only lovers of everyday bureaucracy were able to endure without wanting to crash their own skulls into a wall. The scientist began to browse through folders and finally realized that access to this room was restricted to documents and files. But if this computer was connected to the prison's servers, it was only a matter of breaking through the connection barriers.

Using about 0.00000056% of his intelligence, Azmuth broke through firewall barriers, cracked ridiculous elaborate passwords, and overturned decades of work by the I.T. staff. Just what he needed.

The guards at the exit stood by with their guns drawn. They had received information that one of the invaders and the prisoner Azmuth had managed to escape and it was only a matter of time before they reached that position. The order was absurdly clear: shoot without a chance to react.

Suddenly, the prison lights flashed about twice before going out completely. Green emergency lights came on in the place, just allowing them not to be enveloped in a deep darkness. But the few things the Galvanians could see were totally impaired by what happened next: the fire containment systems went off throughout the prison, spreading a cloud of white powder throughout the facility.

The guards even tried to hold their positions, but with their vision totally impaired and the fog making it difficult to breathe, it was difficult to maintain any focus. Suddenly one of the guards shouts to the others:

"There is something amidst the smoke, shoot!!!"

Even with the shots fired, the black figure advanced against the guards. The impact threw the prison staff to the sides and Azmuth propelled himself against the prison doors that shattered like a bomb in a soda can.

The scientist stopped for a matter of seconds only to check the condition of Max propped up on his back. From the image reproduced in the lower corner of his display, the Magistrate still remained unconscious.

Suddenly a warning signal goes off on his display. The scientist jumps backwards, dodging by a matter of centimeters a laser that cuts the ground in front of him from side to side.

They are no longer trying to capture me alive? Thought Azmuth.

***

Eunice opens her eyes and sees the environment swirl around her. Her head hurts. She brings her hand to her occipital region in search of a bruise, but apart from the pain, there is no sign of injury.

Falling between debris from the wall of a cell, she moves her body slowly, assessing possible damage. It seems that choosing the DNA of Priodontes maximus seconds before she was hit was an excellent choice, for apart from the discomfort of the bruises, she didn't break anything.

Eunice looked around, but found no sign of any other organism inside the huge cell. In fact, what did such a large cell keep contained? The girl stood up from where she was and looked through the hole her body had made in the wall. The guards were focused on a new problem. A ten foot tall problem with scars that resembled a patchwork quilt and bolts in anatomically meaningless places. A Transylian was holding one of the guards with one hand and with the other hand absorbing electricity from the electrical devices around him.

"Damned!" said Eunice.

A situation that was not in her plans. Everyone inside that prison had their reasons for being there and many of them had ended up there before Fahtzi's craziness. If one of these crazy people escaped, it could endanger several civilians on Galvan Prime.

Eunice returns to the back of the cell to get some distance.

"Macropus rufus!" says Eunice into her single-sided headphone.

The red kangaroo's fur coated the inside of her gloves and Eunice did not hesitate to absorb the animal's physical capabilities. She positioned herself and then launched herself down the hole.

The Transylian used the hostage guard as a way to prevent the others from approaching. He needed some time to recharge his batteries. However, his exaggerated strength and barely contained anger made him squeeze the Galvanian in his hand more than he should, so much so that the guard was about to lose consciousness.

By the prisoner's calculations, the guard would black out completely the very moment he managed to regain all his energy, so it was only a matter of time before he could exterminate all these clever little gray rats.

Suddenly, the Transylian felt as if two feet were resting on his back, and abruptly an impulse sent his body hurtling down the corridor until it crashed into the armored vehicle.

With the movement, the prisoner released the fainted guard. Eunice caught the Galvanian still in the air and carefully positioned the officer on the ground.

Did I take too long?

Suddenly he starts coughing, as if his lungs finally have the freedom to expand properly again. Eunice took a relieved breath.

"Human, stay away from him," said a guard.

Eunice raised her head and saw that she was once again surrounded. This time they were careful not to leave any possible space for her to escape.

"Our orders were clear not to allow you to leave here alive, but we saw what you did for our companion. So, don't force us to shoot, and surrender peacefully."

Eunice took a deep breath. She wasn't sure what awaited her from now on, but being alive, she might one day see Azmuth and the laboratory staff again. She began to slowly raise her arms.

Suddenly the hallway lights go out and the fire extinguishers start spreading a dense white cloud all over the place. Why this happened didn't matter now.

Eunice requests the DNA from Condylura cristata and, in the midst of the confusion that has settled in, runs for cover.

***

Azmuth observed the police ships that floated in front of the prison. All armed with artillery cannons, capable of passing through the body of a Talpaedan without difficulty. It was not in the nature of the Galvanian police to use such force to contain a fugitive. Unless the order was not to capture...

Fahtzi must have ordered my death... Thought Azmuth. Ignorant boy...

The scientist could not see himself in any condition to continue advancing. The mechamorph coating would not withstand a single shot from the ships. But with the armor's warlike form, it was a different story. How long would he be able to withstand the neuronal impulse of the technology? Minutes? A few seconds? Where the hell did Unitrix land the ship?

A new shot came towards him. Even though he dodged, the laser beam pulverized some of the metal-organic material that corresponded to his legs. They were not to be trifled with.

Azmuth saw himself in no other situation than to take a risk:

"Activate armor."

The liquiform composition acquired textures, segments and internal differentiations, and in a matter of moments, a galvanic mechamorph armor coated the scientist's body. On his back, Max remained unconscious.

With the activation of the device, Azmuth felt a shock go through his nervous system. An intense primitive impulse reached his limbic system, and he felt anger take over his being.

No! Calm down! He thought. Don't lose control!

One of the ships fired in his direction. Azmuth, without hesitating even for a second, raised his left arm and launched a ball of energy that consumed the laser and headed toward the ship, which narrowly dodged.

Control yourself, Azmuth!!!

With the aggressive counterattack from the fugitive, the police ships adopted a new approach: they left their static position in the middle of the sky and one by one began to move, drawing curves and circles in the air. Simultaneously, three laser beams were launched toward Azmuth.

Unable to think with the rationality necessary to have the slightest compassion, Azmuth raises one of his cannon arms toward the ships and fires. However, an abrupt movement moves his hand to the ground, forcing the ball of energy to hit the ground and raise a thick cloud of dust.

"Azmuth, deactivate the armor immediately!" said Max Tennyson, holding the scientist's arm toward the ground.

"Max?"

The scientist took a few moments to understand the situation that had been established. At his back there was no longer his fallen colleague, and from the expression displayed on the screen, there was seriousness and a certain disappointment in his gaze.

"Come on, Azmuth, deactivate the armor!" repeated Max.

"Sure, sure..."

Azmuth returned to his cladding form and before he could even say anything, a laser blast sliced through the ground beside him.

"Damn them!" shouted Azmuth "Max, where the hell did you and the Unitrix land the ship!"

"In the 'parking lot'?"

"And where is that? This isn't exactly a place I usually visit!"

"Follow me!" said Max. After taking two steps he puts his hand in front of Azmuth's passage and says "Eunice! Where is she?"

"In the prison."

"What?" Max dodges another laser "You left her behind!"

"But of course not! She left herself."

Max activates his armor and projects a shield from his right arm, deflecting another shot at them.

"And you just accepted that!"

"Of course not!"

"And why didn't you go back for her?"

"And who says I'm not going!?"

Max looked at Azmuth through the image on his visor, and in all the years he had known the scientist, he had never seen an expression of determination as firm as the one he was in at this moment.

***

Eunice was hiding behind the cafeteria counter. The extinguishers had already ceased, but the white cloud still refused to settle. The girl's breathing was fast and tired. She felt her muscles vibrate with the effort, and a pain in the back of her neck signaled that continuing to alter her DNA in this way could put the structure of her construct at risk.

Why didn't I just give in then? Eunice thought.

Maybe because the idea of being contained within a tiny space simply terrified her? Maybe it was because she had no guarantee that she would be trapped? Fahtzi would surely have her destroyed at the first opportunity he found her. No... She had to find a way out of there... However, the scream that came next took her hopes with it:

"Human!" shouted a guard.

Eunice changed her position and slowly raised her head above counter level to look toward the entrance of the cafeteria. Armed with heat vision goggles, a group of guards were flying in to search the place.

The teenager crouched down again and remained so. She closed her eyes and thought to herself:

Now it is only a matter of time...

Suddenly a beep like a faint whistle sounded three times in her headphone. Eunice brought her hand to the device, but there was only silence. Again the whistle sounded three times in her ear, making the girl anxious.

Eunice looked at one of her gloves, and a brownish-gray fur wrapped around the palm of the glove. Was it a defect? The girl touched the fur and absorbed the DNA of Corynorhinus townsendii. At the same instant she heard a familiar, grumpy voice ringing in her ears:

"Who is the intelligent creature that develops a communication device that serves only to pick up commands, but receives no feedback of any kind?!"

Azmuth!

A tear trembled in the corner of the girl's eye.

"Hello, Eunice!" said Azmuth, "I really hope you are well. Max and I are already back on the ship and we are using a frequency of sounds that probably only you are hearing right now. Of course, that is if you took my hint and absorbed the DNA I selected for you."

Eunice could hear Azmuth as if she were talking to him a few meters away. However, the nearby sounds of the guards' engines and the orders they were giving each other echoed inside the young woman's brain, giving her an immediate headache.

"Eunice, tell me, where are you?" said Azmuth.

The girl thought for a moment. How could she communicate without revealing her hiding place? She put her hand to her headset and hoped that just as the beep sounded in her ear, it would also reach the ship. Using a well-known code system used by human sailors, Eunice reported her exact position.

"Max, this girl has gone crazy," Azmuth said. "What the hell does that bunch of whistles mean?"

Eunice held back her laughter. She had learned the code from one of the books she read in the library about human culture. Lucky for her the Magistrate was from Earth.

"Let me see," said Max. "This is Morse code. Just a second... Dot, long, dot, space, dot, space, dot, dot..."

Eunice repeated the code in her headphone trying to make sure the Magistrate didn't miss any letters. At last:

"Cafeteria. She's in the cafeteria!"

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" said Azmuth. "Eunice, we're getting closer. Pay attention, on my signal, deactivate the DNA and jump towards the exit!"

Which signal? Which exit?

"Now!"

Without much thought, Eunice deactivated the long-eared bat DNA and waited. A bang was heard, and a hole opened in the east wall of the room.

That exit!

The girl came out from behind the counter and advanced through the cafeteria toward the new spotlight. Shouts from the guards ordered her to stay put, but if she hadn't obeyed any of the previous orders, she wasn't going to now. Shots passed close to her body, missing by millimeters, until finally she reached the exit.

Eunice jumped out and fell in a somersault onto the ceiling of the plumbing ship. A small opening opened in the ceiling allowing the teenager to enter. The girl went straight down into the main cabin, being greeted by Max with a big hug!

"Eunice, my dear!"

"Magistrate, how nice to see you again! But don't worry about me. You, how are you?"

"That doesn't matter now!" said Max "What matters is that you are well!"

"In fact, none of this will matter if we don't get out of here," said Azmuth dryly.

"You're right," said the magistrate, returning to the pilot's chair, "Computer!"

"Yes, magistrate."

"Activate manual pilot. Let me take it from here!"

"Yes, magistrate."

Eunice slowly approached the computer panel, where her creator was. She lowered her head and, staring at the floor at her feet, said

"Lord Azmuth, I-I..."

"Lift your head, Eunice, and look into my eyes!" said Azmuth.

Eunice stared at Azmuth. She knew that she had disregarded dozens of the scientist's orders, had put herself in danger and had to be rescued.

"Thank you very much, Eunice."

"W-what?" said the girl.

"You are an amazing youth, and once again you have proven that creating you was one of the greatest successes of my life!" Azmuth bowed his head in reverence. "Thank you so much for rescuing me."

Eunice could not hold back her happy tears. The girl, who had been so brave and intelligent all this time, finally allowed herself a moment of true happiness.

Even in Max a tear trembled in the corner of her eye.

"Magistrate," said the ship's computer. "Our sensors show that the entire planet is once again sealed off, making it impossible for us to go beyond the atmosphere of Galvan Prime."

"Eunice and Azmuth, do either of you have an idea?" asked Max.

The Galvanian and the young woman looked at each other, but said nothing. Each went to one of the computer panels and began their research.

"Okay, that sounds like a no," said Max.

"Magistrate, approaching ships to the east and south."

"Of course they would come back..."

"I told you to destroy the ships!" said Azmuth.

"Yes, you did..." replied Max.

"What happened, sir?" said Eunice.

"On our escape, several galvanic police ships surrounded us and instead of Max simply destroying the ships he chose to launch an electromagnetic pulse against the vehicles leaving them disconnected, but in perfect state..."

"And why, Magistrate?"

"I thought they were manned ships..."

"He thought they were manned ships!" shouted Azmuth "For decades we have been using drones for aerial pursuits precisely to avoid accidents with pilots!"

"Ok, ok. Now come on, instead of yelling at me, have you found a way out of here?"

"Yes, I have! Unfortunately for you I am capable of yelling at you and finding a solution to our problem at the same time!"

"What would that be?"

"Head towards the triple tower of the Galvan Council and drop the ship between tower B and C."

"What!? Are you out of your mind, Azmuth?"

"Do as I say."

"No way! There must be another way..."

"Magistrate" Eunice put a hand on Max's shoulder "Ignore his grumpy manner, but please trust him."

Max thought for a few seconds, then said:

"Computer, plot course for the space between Galvan Council towers B and C."

"Thank you very much, Magistrate. I will go to the artillery to try to shoot down the drones."

"Be careful." said Azmuth in a fatherly tone of voice.

"I will."

The police drones finally reached the plumber ship. Max moved the spacecraft through the air, dodging their fire, while Eunice launched laser beams at her pursuers. The image bordered on an impromptu fireworks festival in the Galvan sky, surrounded by lights and explosions.

"Sir, we are approaching our destination," said the computer.

"What now, Azmuth?" said Max.

"Activate hyperspace."

"If I just let the drones hit us, we'll die anyway, do you want to play kamikaze and take the Council with us?" said Max ironically.

"I don't know what kamikazes are, but I stand by my indication that you should activate hyperspace right now."

Max stared at Azmuth, and again, a determined expression was drawn on his face.

"I pray to heaven you are not wrong. Computer, activate hyperspace."

"Yes, Magistrate."

The plumbing ship was approaching the towers of the Galvanic Council when its image became slender and, in a flash, disappeared at a point between the two buildings.

The police drones stopped their trajectory and circled in the air, looking for signs of the fugitives' ship.

***

Expanded orbit of the planet Keplorr, home of the Galileans.

Thurkn and Rhutel were preparing to begin the ritual. The Galilean couple for years had planned the sequence and trajectory necessary for the creation of this primordial core. They approached and held hands. Slowly they began to spin in a romantic round dance.

Then they released their hands and deformed into their spherical shapes without stopping the movement. The two Galileans functioned as two planets orbiting each other, emitting gravitational waves throughout the universe. At the center of their dance of creation, a small blackened dot was beginning to appear, distorting the oncoming light.

Happiness overcame the aliens, who began to move in orbit with even more enthusiasm. The small black hole began to attract to itself stardust and meteor fragments that had been unlucky enough to pass through it. A beautiful ring, like saturn's, began to encircle the black spot.

Suddenly the Galilean couple was overcome with sudden concern, for in a flash, a slender image emerged from within the core and launched itself into open space. The image finally took shape and the aliens saw a plumbing ship appear and continue on its way as if nothing had happened.

Thurkn was overcome with deep irritation, but the moment he moved to draw the ship in, his companion caught his attention: the blackened spot was already coated with solid matter and was beginning to redden. It was a crucial moment in the process, so Thurkn decided to leave the vandals for later and focus on the most important moment of her life: the birth of her firstborn.

Northyl. The couple had even decided on a name. His name will be Northyl.