Chapter Text
“Animo!” An angry man with a thick, Jersey accent, yelled as he banged on the door to the decrepit apartment. “Open up – I know you’re in there!” No response came, not even the calls of the Doctor’s private little menagerie, and the man scowled. “Freakin’ old coot,” He hissed to himself as he dug in his pockets for a keyring, flicking through the keys attached, “Last time I do somebody a favor…” He grumbled, pushing the door open. “What in blazes-!?” He looked around, spotting the animals in cages all looking at him with beady, empty eyes. “ANIMO!” He bellowed.
The door creaked as it was pushed shut behind him, sealing him inside.
“Ah, Mister Peabody,” Animo’s voice emanated from behind the man, making him spin around in surprise to find Animo there, standing with his hand on the door, holding it shut, “What an unexpected surprise…”
Peabody gulped, tugging on his jacket. “You want to talk about surprises? You know what it says in the lease – ‘no pets!’”
“Who said anything about pets?” Animo slowly replied, tilting his head. “These are my most valued lab associates.”
“I don’t care what you call them,” Peabody flapped his hand angrily, pointing furiously at the doctor, “That don’t change the fact they’re not supposed to be here! And neither are you! The rent’s… 18 months past due,” He gestured, glaring at the doctor, “You’re done, Animo. Your stuff’s not out of here by sundown, I’m callin’ the cops.”
“Mister Peabody, really?” Animo flashed a rotten smile. “The authorities? We’re both reasonable men, I’m sure we can come to an arrangement…”
“Nuh-uh,” Peabody gestured again, “You’ve got too many second chances – not one more. You’re outta here, Animo.”
Peabody’s words had the effect they’d have on anyone. Animo’s eyes blazed with anger, as he tremored in rage.
“Very well!” Animo spat. “If you won’t see reason, I shall give you no quarter!” His hand went up to the dial on his chest, turning it up.
Barks, snarls, and screeches filled the room, as the animals in the cages began to freak out.
“Animo!” Peabody slapped his hands over his ears. “Cut it out!”
“You’ve only yourself to blame, Peabody!” Animo screamed angrily, before he dropped his hands as another foul smile split his face. “All that rent money you’ve been taking from me… It’s been so long since my friends here have had a decent meal.”
One of the animals, a cockatoo, grew larger, ripping through its steel cage like it was nothing. The bird grew to the size of a bear, sprouting a plume of razor-sharp feathers on its head, as the other animals broke free.
Peabody screamed as he fell onto his back, the bird pinning him under its enormous talons.
The mutated cockatoo looked down at the man with beady, inquisitive eyes, before it brought his beak down around him.
Mister Peabody, former landlord of Doctor Animo, knew no more.
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Tennis shoes hit the pavement as the Rustbucket’s inhabitants descended out, onto asphalt that could cook an egg out in front of a towering office building slap bang in the middle of downtown Chicago.
“You didn’t tell us your friend worked at Trump Tower…” Gwen murmured, looking up at the building, squinting as the light from the sun bounced off the glass and glared back in her eyes.
“Trump Tower’s around the corner, actually.” Grandpa Max replied as he locked up the RV, and shoved the keys into his pocket.
“So…” Ben crossed his arms, shivering, before they began the walk up to the front lobby, “He knows we’re coming, right? And we can do this?”
Grandpa Max’s lips twitched as he held the door for his grandchildren, letting them through first. “Of course I’m sure – he owns the place.”
“Oh, friends in high places, awesome!” Ben pumped his fists as they walked in, and he curiously looked around. The place was like those techy startup companies you see everywhere on the internet – a lobby filled with ‘interesting’, ‘wacky’, or ‘nonconventional’ design to make them stand out, but only succeeding in making them look exactly like every one of their peers.
Ben bet if he looked around enough, he could find a ball pit in here.
“Max!” A voice called, Ben spinning around to see who it was.
Ben’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as he saw Victor Valadis of all people, wearing a lab coat, approaching Grandpa Max excitedly.
“Who is that guy?” Gwen whispered to Ben as Grandpa Max returned the smile, shaking Victor’s hand.
“Vic!” Max greeted heartily. “Long time no see, eh?”
“Since that business all the way down in Mexico City!” Victor recalled with a smile. “Didn’t think it’d take you this long to get back to me!”
Grandpa Max chuckled. “You know how it is – I’ve been busy.”
“One plumbing emergency after another, huh?” Victor knowingly asked in response, looking at Ben and Gwen. “Ah, who are your niños?”
Ben blinked, frowning to himself. Elena – Victor’s daughter, just to refresh his own memory – had been his and Gwen’s childhood friend in the old universe. Ben had a hard time believing Victor didn’t know who they were, especially if he and Grandpa Max were still on speaking terms, unless Elena hadn’t been their friend here.
Just another thing to add to the stack of differences.
“Grandchildren,” Max patiently corrected, placing a proud hand on both Ben and Gwen’s shoulders, “Gwen and Ben.”
“Hi.” Gwen awkwardly waved.
“Hey.” Ben shrugged.
“We’re going on a world tour.” Max finished up, as Victor grinned again.
“World tour, ey?” Victor chuckled, looking at Ben and Gwen like they were co-conspirators of his. “Listen, do me a favor – you ever get down to Cancún, you gotta try this little joint on the coastline. They sell a quesadilla pizza that’s the most touristy bit of food you’ll ever eat, but oh…” A heavenly expression washed over his features. “It beats being cooped up in a car with that guy,” He pointed at Max, “all day eating mealworms!”
Ben died laughing, holding his gut as Gwen slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her own laughter.
“But, ah, I kid, I kid.” Victor chuckled, wiping away his own laughter, “So Max, what brings you ‘round to my neck of the woods?”
Max smiled knowingly, teasingly. “We found something the other night; thought you might be interested in taking a look at it.”
“Well, I’m a busy guy, you know…” Victor prodded back.
“It survived re-entry without a heat shield.” Max crossed his arms with a twinkle in his eyes.
“…you know what, let’s head up to my office.”
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“So, what exactly do you do here?” Gwen asked curiously as they took the elevator up to Victor’s office, Ben impatiently tapping his foot the whole way up.
“Well, see, I started as a metallurgist, but now, we do a little bit of everything.” Victor answered, regaling them as the lift finally stopped, and they walked out onto the floor. “Anything and everything that needs new kinds of materials to go into it, we make.”
“What, like watches and jewelry and stuff?” Ben supposed as they approached Victor’s office.
“Eh, yeah, kind of.” Victor swiped his card, opening the door for them. “We make metals, we make rubber, we make circuitry, anything and everything computer-y and metallic.”
“That’s the technical term, is it?” Max let out a rumbling chuckle.
“Hey, lot of good money to be made in computers!” Victor defended as he proceeded in behind them. “Good science, too.”
Ben began to walk in further, before he spotted a guy with sticky-uppy hair, sitting in a chair, wearing a lab coat. Funny thing was, he looked like he could be Ben’s age. “Um, are we having a community appointment or something?”
“Huh?” Sticky-uppy hair guy shot to his feet, looking around. “Oh, Doctor Validus, the door was open, so I just-“
“Don’t worry about it,” Victor held up his hands, as he turned to the Tennysons, “This is Dr. Salazar – real whiz kid when it comes to machines. But, uh, he does have a habit of letting himself into places…”
“Sorry, doctor,” Salazar apologized, “I just came by to drop off the latest progress reports. We’re still having problems with battery capacity and…” He glanced at the Tennysons, “You know what, this conversation would probably best be saved for later.” A beeping noise emanated from one of his pockets, before he groaned, “Oh, what now…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, reading the text. “Oh, seriously!?” He looked up at Victor with a pained expression, “I’ve got to get back down to the lab – one of the containment units broke. Again.”
“Hop to it,” Victor ordered, before he snapped his fingers, “Hey, why don’t you take Ben and Gwen here with you?” He gestured, “Show ‘em around the place. I’m pretty sure they don’t wanna see their gramps and me standing around an electron microscope for a solid hour.”
Grandpa Max didn’t look thrilled by the prospect, however. “Uh… are you sure that’s a good idea, Vic?”
“Hey, come on, they’re teenagers, not ten-year-olds.” Victor threw his hands toward them with a smile. “I’m sure they know what they should and shouldn’t touch.”
“A word of warning?” Ben held up his hand. “I’m probably going to go down and touch stuff anyway, so it’d probably be a good idea to send Gwen with me.”
Gwen rounded on him. “Ben!”
“Gweeeen!” Ben returned, pitching his voice higher. “Come on, I’m just skipping the whole song and dance routine – Grandpa tells me to stay, I sneak away anyway, you sneak off after me to keep me from getting into trouble, we both wind up going down to the lab anyway – I’m streamlining!”
“God, I hate you…” Gwen grumbled, shaking her head as she looked down.
Ben returned it with a winning grin as he teasingly slinged an arm around her shoulders. “No you don’t!”
“Right now, I really wish I did.”
Ben continued to smile at her, before he seemed to realize just who his arm was around, and he yanked it away. He couldn’t get too chummy with the people here.
“Well… If you’re sure, Vic.” Grandpa Max granted at last, looking sternly at his grandchildren. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Go on, Doc,” Victor said right after, “Show ‘em some of our cool toys.
Salazar sighed, looking at the duo. “Right this way.”
Ben flashed his teeth at Gwen, earning a tired expression from her as they followed Salazar out. Once the doors shut, Victor turned to Max.
“So, about this pod…”
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Ben looked around curiously, as Doctor Salazar just kept on talking boringly as they walked through the lab. Gwen probably understood most of what he was talking about, but Ben couldn’t care less – he just wanted to see if they had any cool toys.
“…most of our contracts and funding come from the big tech companies,” Salazar spoke to Gwen as they walked along, “Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, what-have-you… We’ve been working on new, cheaper, better materials to use in the construction of their electronic devices.”
“I would like a phone that could actually hold up to the punishment this Doofus puts it through,” She gestured at Ben, who was looking through a window, quite interested at something that looked like the same liquid metal that comprised Upgrade, or the stuff the infamous T-1000 was made of.
“Hey, I only broke your phone once.” Ben defended himself once he felt her gaze upon him. “And I only did it cause your parents were being annoying.”
“Of course, mineral synthesis is only part of what we do here.” Salazar waved them along, down to a room at the end. They stood outside the doors, watching as men and women in full hazmat gear moved around the interior.
“Are they… vacuuming?” Gwen frowned, tilting her head curiously.
“Of a sort,” Salazar answered, crossing his arms as he looked through as well, observing intently the operations going on, “That metallic dust they’re vacuuming up isn’t dust.”
“Then what is it?” Ben inquired, looking between the doctor and the laboratory.
“Nanites.” He answered pridefully. “Tiny machines the size of human cells.”
“Nan…” Ben began to repeat, before his eyes widened, and it clicked into place. He thought the guy had looked familiar… “Wait…” He pointed at the other guy slowly, “You aren’t Cesar Salazar… are you?”
The doctor turned up his head, tugging his lab coat pridefully. “I see my reputation precedes me.”
Okay, that was weird. So far, Ben had only met recreations of people native to his original universe – so the last thing he expected to run into people from a universe he only visited once. If Cesar was around, though, did that mean Rex was there? That really, really good-looking scientist lady, Holiday?
Actually, wait, the bigger question was: did the Annihilargh going off somehow affect Rex’s universe, or did Alien X just plop down copies while making this new one? It was more than likely the second option, thinking about it.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Gwen frowned. “I mean… I’m no technophobe, but I don’t want little robots running around in my body, all willy-nilly.”
“She’s right,” Ben instantly agreed with her, seeing first-hand what a nanite-infested person was capable of, “What if they mutate people into giant monsters with no self-control – spider people with octagonal-shaped bodies and a craving for human-“
Gwen smacked him in the chest, shutting him up. “My doofus cousin has a point, though.” Gwen conceded, looking at Salazar questioningly. “What’s to stop glitches from those things turning people into flesh slurry?”
“Please, I’m not an amateur,” Cesar snorted quietly to himself, “All our nanites have a hard-coded failsafe – if software glitches cause them to behave erratically, they kill themselves, well before any lasting damage can be done. We know exactly what we’re doing here.”
Ben opened his mouth, before he heard something. A distant rumbling, like a stampede, followed by the ground shaking. The wall to the laboratory exploded in a shower of stone dust and chunks of debris, throwing the scientists inside to the floor.
Ben, Gwen, and Cesar jumped back, frozen in shock by the sudden intrusion. As the dust cloud cleared, the trio were faced with the perpetrator of the act, and a man whom Ben knew very well.
“Oh, no…” Ben muttered to himself, spotting the giant, mutated Bullfrog.
“Salazar!” Animo bellowed furiously, pointing at Cesar.
Ben and Gwen snapped to look at him.
“You know this freak!?” Ben hollered, as Cesar took a step back.
“Yeah,” Cesar admitted with a gulp, “I was his protégé before I came here.”
“Yes!” Animo hissed, “And you used that opportunity to usurp my research, steal my advancements for your own personal gain!” The diseased doctor raged as another of his mutant menagerie crawled into the building through the hole in the wall – a giant rat, covered in long, needle-like protrusions, drooling a corrosive acid. “But I survived your pitiful attempt at backstabbing me, and now, I will show you what it is like to have your work all be for nothing!”
“Oh, so it’s going to be one of those days, is it?” Ben asked to himself, shaking his head. “Gwen, get ‘whiz kid’ out of here. I’ll deal with the zookeeper over here.”
“What are you going to do about him!?” Gwen demanded incredulously, as the giant rat began to gnaw through the door.
Ben turned to her, smiled, and flashed the Omnitrix.
Gwen’s eyes widened, before she grabbed Cesar’s hand, and dragged him away. “You know what, I think Ben has everything under control…” Her voice faded out as they ran back.
“I guess it had to happen sooner or later…” Ben muttered, pressing the button on the Omnitrix. That acid the thing was secreting was eating through metal, which left only three real options in Ben’s arsenal. Wildvine, Heatblast, and Cannonbolt. Knowing exactly which one he wanted, he grinned. “It’s Hero Time!” Ben pushed down the core, exploding in a flash of green light.
His spine popped as he was hunched over, the muscle mass across his entire body swelling up and densifying as armor plating grew out of some patches of his skin, like an armadillo. His head and torso became one, as his entire overall build became stockier, but still larger than the average adult human, and the Omnitrix relocated itself to his chest. Indeed, when the light faded, Ben had been transformed into-
“CANNONBOLT!” The Arburian Pelarota shouted in his deep, rumbling voice.
“Incredible…” Animo leaned forward for a moment, temporarily enraptured by the transformation. “Full-body DNA transformation! How did you do it!? How could a mere child have accomplished my life’s work!?”
“You wanna find out?” Cannonbolt rumbled, narrowing his eyes as the rat broke through the door at last. “Here – let me get the ball rolling!" He jumped, curling up into himself like a giant rolly polly, before he hit the ground. Spinning up in place, Cannonbolt shot off like a giant, unstoppable bowling ball rolling down an alley.
A tremendous crack echoed through the lab as Cannonbolt smacked into the giant, mutated rat, knocking it back, as the recoil sent him flying back down the hallway.
Cannonbolt slid to a stop, unrolling and standing up.
Across the way, the rat shook off its pain, and got back to its four furry feet, hissing hatefully at the alien hero.
“Are you kidding me!?” Cannonbolt rumbled, “That should’ve stopped a dump truck!”
“Oh, there’s no stopping this my rotund, yet nimble friend!” Animo shook his fist as Cannonbolt rolled back up, spin-dashed at the rat again, and bounced back off, down the corridor. “Nothing will stop me! My vengeance will be as sure as the coming of the night! And it will be a deadly vengeance… It will be a deadly vengeance of deadly revenge!”
“Okay,” Cannonbolt unrolled again, sliding against the floor to a stop, “Now I know your brain’s gone down the crapper.”
“Mock me while you still can!” Animo hollered, “But even you will find yourself wholly inadequate in the face of my genius!”
“All right,” Cannonbolt brought his hands up, balling his fists, “Round three – let’s go!”
The rat charged, slamming into Cannonbolt and throwing him down the corridor again. The one saving grace Cannonbolt had was that his plates were so thick and tough, acid-mouth couldn’t eat through them. It made sense – he’d survived re-entry numerous times with just them, after all.
“I’m gettin’ real sick and tired of being knocked around like a human pinball.” Cannonbolt grumbled, getting back on two stumpy, shaky feet. A pop of color on the wall drew his eyes to it, and as he observed further, he noticed it was a sign for the entrance door to a storage room.
Cannonbolt grinned, standing in place as the giant rat charged. The floor quaked as it got closer and closer, the huge alien ducking in at the last second, sending the rat overshooting.
The rat slammed its claws into the floor, dragging itself to a stop before it slammed through the door to the storage room.
The rat stopped, not seeing the alien creature it was following. It began to sniff out the trail, moving slowly through the storage room. It rounded the corner, only to be swung at by a giant pole, being knocked back from the bone-shattering impact.
“Yeah!” Cannonbolt shouted. “Let that be a lesson to-“ The Omnitrix began to flash red, letting out the time-out beeps. In a moment, he was overtaken by a red flash, and Ben stood there, back to normal. “Oh, man!” Ben groaned, looking at the Omnitrix. “Why do you even have an alarm for the time outs if it only kicks in three seconds before!?”
A shadow fell over Ben, and he looked up, gulping as the rat glared down at him.
“Yee-oosh!” Ben made the odd sound as he bolted, just in time to miss the rat’s talons slicing through a steel container. “Come on!” He shouted at the Omnitrix as he twisted the dial, earning angry bleeps and buzzes in response as its lights stayed red.
The rat roared, and Ben jumped down a corner, the giant animal sliding across the floor as it changed its course to keep up. Ben charged through a yellow square printed on the floor, and gulped, as he hit a dead end.
He turned around, seeing the rat charging across. Ben slammed his eyes shut, waiting for the Omnitrix to kick back on, before he heard something. Mechanical whirring, loud as the winds of a tornado, emanated from ahead.
Ben popped his eyes back open, to see the rat’s neck in the grip of a mechanical claw, trapped in such a way that it could move around and kick, but the acid couldn’t eat through the metal, and the rat couldn’t maneuver to chew its way out.
“Hey Doofus!” Gwen called, and Ben’s head spun around to see her at the controls of the crane with a smug look. “Lot better than a mousetrap, don’t you think?”
Ben let out a breath as he hit the wall and slumped to the floor, holding a thumb up in her direction.
…he was probably going to have a fear of rats too when all was said and done here.