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Ben 10 GL:TAS Queens of the Ram Ch 3

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Chapter 3 - Path of Destruction

Plumber Universe - The Galactic Rim

Saint Walker exited the engine room, wondering why the ship had grown so silent. When the Blue Lantern saw what everyone else did outside the front of the ship, even he had nothing comforting to say.

After a few moments of absorbing the catastrophe in front of them, Razer spoke, "What in the name of Gortz happened here?"

"I've scanned the area," one of the Alpha Squad said. "I read the wreckage of at least six Plumber ships, a Galvin science vessel and several Galvin support craft."

"No life signs," Hobble added grimly.

"Those damn Incurseans!" Kodek fumed. "I knew we could never trust them!"

Hal focused on Ben, who seemed to be trapped in a daze. When the teenager finally spoke he said, "But I left Rook and Molly right here. They can't be -?"

"Molly?!" Kodek yelled. He changed over to Ben and picked him up by the front of his shirt. "Molly was here! You got her killed?"

"Hey! Knock it off!" Kilowog ordered.

The Sergeant and Jordan pulled the two away from each other. Kilowog had to restrain Kodek, who wanted to thrash Ben. The young hero might have taken him on if the circumstances hadn't been so tragic. Ben lowered his head.

"Rook," he muttered. "I left me partner to get killed."

Hal Jordan, the ever optimist, couldn't say anything to negate Ben's statement. The sadness at this statement must have touched each of his Lantern friends. They had lost a partner as well. However, it was  Hobble who provided the hope.

"No Ben," the insect stated. "There is no sign of the Proto-Truk in the debris field. They must have escaped."

"Or the ship got totally vaporized!" Kodek snapped.

"Kid! You are not helping!" Hal fired back.

"Kodek! I'm getting a distress signal!" another Alpha told them. "It's coming from the planetary system of Khoros!"

"The Tetramands? Since when do they need help?" Kodek asked pulled himself free of Kilowog's grip.

"It's not coming from the Tetramands themselves but a Plumber craft. I'm boosting the signal."

The Alpha member punched several buttons and turned knob. The entire crew heard a familiar voice.

"The is Molly Gunther! We are under attack by an unknown species of robot! They have peeled off to destroy any responding spacecraft! Do not engage! Repeat! Do not engage! Escape if you can!"

"Molly!" Ben finally snapped out of his grief. "Rook!"

"Unidentified hostiles intent is to kill!" Molly shouted. "Repeat! To kill! They are taking no prisoners!"

"Get a lock on their position!" Kodek ordered.

"We are going down! Do not attempt rescue!"

The transmission cut off.

"No! We got to help them!" Ben insisted.

"Did she say robot?" Hal asked looking around the room.

"Killer robots?" Hobble. "Like the ones from Dimension Twelve?"

"Those things can't be all the way out here," Ben said. " I sealed the portal they came through the last time. And they can't fly. It's - oh no."

"What?" Hal stared at Ben.

"When we came to this system to rescue Alpha Squad, we found a pair of robots some distance from the rift. But I thought they were deactivated."

"What did they look like?" The Green Lantern demanded.

"Red and blue with silver faces."

Hal's face nearly drained to the same pallor as Razer's at the description. The Red Lantern made a gasping sound as if he had lost the ability it breath. Kilowog uttered another word Ben didn't understand but figured must be something unpleasant. Even the calm Saint Walker looked frightened.

"Kodek!" Hal ordered. "You keep this ship out of range! I'm taking Kilowog to destroy those things! Razer and Saint Walker will stay with you."

"You know what they are?" Kodek snarled.

"Yes! And they will cut this ship to pieces like all the others if you attack them! As Lanterns we can engage these things in single combat! Something you can't do!"

"Something they can't do!" Ben replied. "I'm going with you!"

"You don't know how to fight these things, kid," Kilowog said.

"I do!" Razer added. "There is no reason for me to stay here either!"

"My partner in trouble!" Ben insisted. "I'm going! Even if I have to follow you!"

"So will I!" Razer growled.

Hal sighed. "You can come with us. Ben, you follow what we tell you to do."

"I'll try," Ben said.

"Let's get to the ramp. Kodek. Release us outside."

The four of them rushed to the rear of the ship and descended into the belly to stand just outside the exit.

"Wait? You guys can go outside without spacesuits?" Ben realized.

"The rings provide us breathable atmosphere," Hal explained as he glowed green with the protective covering.

"As you sure you're up to this kid?" Kilowog asked.

"Yes!" said Ben and Razer in unison.

Ben didn't have time to look up from his Omnitrix as he quickly flipped through the holographic display, however he sensed Kilowog had not been talking to him but Razer. Why had the Green Lanterns wanted the Red to stay behind? And why ask Saint Walker to remain in the ship if his Blue Energy boosted Green Energy?

Ben had no time to question them. He found the alien he wanted.

"Jetray got me to your universe. I'll be able to use him to keep up with you easy," Ben stated. He chose what should have been the correct creature, tapped the icon and then slammed down on the dial. But instead of changing into the Aerophibian Ben had used to reach Biot, he transformed into his pterosaur like alien he had only used twice before. He looked down at rusty reptilian bird form adorned with green on his chest, waist, hand and feet before squawking, "This was not what I wanted."

"Can that creature breathe in outer space?" Razer asked.

"I'll know in a minute," Astrodactyl replied as he unfolded his glider style wings.

The ramp dropped open and the four of them flew outside. Ben found that Astrodactyl lacked the turning abilities of Jetray, forcing him to make a wider loop around the Plumber ship than the Lanterns. He quickly engaged the thrusters on his organic star powered jet pack and immediately caught up with them, putting the much slower spacecraft far behind them.

Astrodactyl fell in along side Razer.

"Told you I could keep up!" the bird reptile cawed.

"You were not so sure," Razer said.

"This alien form is a newbie. I'm still learning to control the amount of -."

Astrodactyl let out another burst of power and suddenly streaked past the Lanterns, flailing his arms and legs. The Lanterns pushed themselves to go even faster.

"Ben! Slow down!" Hal shouted.

"It's like my jet pack is overloaded!" Astrodactyl shrieked.

The green energy coming from the star generated propulsion appeared intensely brighter than normal. Razer figured out the situation.

"It's the Blue Energy! It's increased the creature's power!"

Hal Jordan used his ring to clamp onto Astrodactyl's leg. He attempted to slow him down, but instead got pulled along at the increased speed, putting him some distance ahead of Kilowog and Razer.

"Kid! Stop panicking!" Hal ordered. "Level out your arms and legs! Try to relax!"

Astrodactyl took the advice. He steadied himself into a flying position, putting his arms out in front, and immediately slowed down.
Hal released the clamp construct as he pulled up along side him.

"Sorry about that," Astrodactyl apologized. "I don't know what happened."

"Razer did," Hal explained. "The Blue Energy made your alien move faster."

"Wow! I wonder what that type of boost has done to my other aliens?"

Hal glance behind him seeing to points of light, one green, and one red following them at some distance behind. He then focused in front on him to observe the yellow sand covered planet they were approaching.

"Do we wait for the others?" Astrodactyl asked.

"They'll find us," Hal said.

"What are these robots we're fighting?"

"They are called Manhunters," The Green Lantern explained.

"Manhunters!? The name even sounds evil."

"They weren't created evil. They -.”

The pair saw an explosion within the atmosphere of the planet. Several Khoros' battle cruisers were being blown apart. The two Manhunter robots zoomed away from the carnage they brought to enter the planet's atmosphere.

"It's them!" Hal stated.

The Green Lantern dove towards the planet. Astrodactyl followed without thinking about the atmospheric re entry causing him to burn up. Obviously Hal's green energy life support system shielded him. Astrodactyl's tough reptile hide seemed to offer the protection he needed, but the heat still felt uncomfortable as he successfully crossed into Khoros' environment.

Khoros didn't have much to offer in beauty. Endless dunes of sand went on for miles only dotted from time to time with mountains or small oasis. There were also the obelisk markers and pyramid structures of each Tetramand's territory. And the Manhunters were heading for the closest one they had found.

"Ben!" Hal called out. "They're heading towards a populated area. They will kill everyone they find!"

"Not anymore!" Astrodactyl squawked.

Hal projected a hand construct that grabbed the closest Manhunter by its leg. The robot lurched backward from the sudden pull, turned and aimed its silver staff at Astrodactyl.

"Emotion detected!" it stated in a female voice. "The sentence is death!"

"What?" Astrodactyl shouted in surprise.

The point of the weapon energized before it opened fire. Hal placed a green energy shield between themselves and the Manhunter, blocking the burst of deadly energy. Astrodactyl darted up and behind the killer robot much faster than it could turn. Hal watched in wonderment as the winged alien created two whips of green energy out of its wrist and lashed them around the Manhunter's arms.

"You know what hind and quartered is?" Astrodactyl asked.

Hal got the intent right away. Using the same kind of projected whip from his own ring, he lashed it around the robot's ankles. The immediately increased to their top speed in opposite directions, pulling the Manhunter with such force between them, it shuttered, sparked and then tore in half at the waist before blowing up.

As its debris fell to the ground, Kilowog and Razer flew past Hal and Astrodactyl in pursuit of the second Manhunter. They quickly followed them.

"Green Energy?" Hal smirked to Astrodactyl.

"Yeah. Another freaky coincidence. By the way, why is a male robot talking with a female voice?"

Before Hal could respond, a musical chirping sound came from the Omnitrix symbol on Astrodactyl's shoulder.

"Oh no!" he cried.

Astrodactyl reverted back to Ben who then plummeted towards the desert below, shouting for help. Hal dove after him, extending his Lantern energy for a rescue. The teenager landed on a green construct shaped like a giant catchers mitt. Ben sat up, staring at Hal with an appreciative smile.

"You really do like baseball," Ben said.

"What happened?" Hal asked.

"I never told you, the Omnitrix times out after about ten minutes," he shrugged.

"Well it's good I was here to catch you," The Green Lantern sighed.

"Put me down on the ground. I'll change and meet up with you."

"Okay."

Hal lowered Ben to the hot sand before flying off as quickly as he could to find Kilowog, Razer and the other Manhunter. As he soared over the dunes, he spotted a strange blue blur running along the ground keeping pace and then moving past him. When Hal looked up, he saw his follow Lanterns sparing with the robot just outside the gates of an enormous pyramid structure.

Razer had used a red scimitar construct to slice the Manhunter's weapon in two while Kilowog utilized his favorite a green construct hammer to slam the robot into the ground. Damaged but still not destroyed, the Manhunter got to its feet.

"Emotions detected. The sentence is -."

WHAM!

Hal saw an enormous four-armed alien dressed in a suit a battle armor use a double-ended club to hit the Manhunter as if it were a tennis ball. The robot went airborne allowing Kilowog to strike it again, knocking its head clean off. The robots body fell to the dunes. The blue blur caught the Manhunter skull before continuing on for another mile. The creature than reversed course and returned, managing to come to a halt after plowing a trail a quarter mile long in the sand.

The Kineceleran Ben called XLR8 held the severed head in its three fingered claws. It turned its raptor like body around to look up at the Lanterns. He grinned and tipped his hand to them.

"I really have to control that Blue Energy boost," XLR8 said.

"Ben Tennyson!" a gruff female voice bellowed at him.

The once smug alien winced as he saw the female Tetramand stalking towards him.

"Looma!" XLR8 said with a nervous laugh. "It's been a while."

"What are you and your plumber friend doing crashing into my father's territory?" Princess Looma Red Wind demanded.

"Plumbers?" the Kineceleran looked confused as he glanced at Hal, Kilowog and Razer. The Sergeant still had his hammer construct in his hands, wondering if he might have to use it on the Tetramand. XLR8 continued, "Those aren't Plumbers. They're Lanterns."

"I'm talking about them!" Looma thumbed her left top hand over her shoulder.

XLR8 saw Rook and Molly walking towards him. The Kineceleran smiled at first but then noticed Molly supporting Rook as if he were injured. He no longer cared about the conversation with Looma and dashed over to them.

"Rook! You okay?" he asked.

"I am not entirely myself today," Rook panted.

"He brought down the ship right down into the House of Red Wind's territory," Molly explained. "He was checking the ship for damage but the heat got to him."

"I forgot," XLR8 smacked his head. "You don't do well in hot climates."

"The ship is just over that sand dune," Rook said. "Princess Looma was not too pleased with our arrival. Or those robots attacking her father's battle fleet."

"Who are you?!" XLR8 heard Princess Looma to the Lanterns.

"Hold this!" the Kineceleran gave Molly the Manhunter head before dashing back to stand between Princess Looma and his Lantern friends. He grinned up at her and began to explain, "Looma. None of us wanted to come here. We were just destroying some killer robots from another universe."

"Really?" she looked skeptical. "This isn't some elaborate attempt for you to regain my favor?"

"No Looma."

"Because you're betrothed beat me in fair combat for the right to marry you."

Hal made a gagging noise that he quickly tried to cover up by coughing.

"I know I'm not you're fiancé! And I'm not interested in becoming it again. I promise! We were just dealing with some really evil robots."

"I demand to know who these other intruders are by name!" Looma stated pointing her top left hand at the Lanterns while putting her two lower arms on her hips and shouldering her club with her upper right arm. A wide grin crossed her face. "Especially the one in the middle."

Princess Looma stared directly at Kilowog. Now he made a choking sound.

"Green Lantern Hal Jordan, ma'am," the human said very formally. "This is Sergeant Kilowog and Razer."

"Kilowog," Looma repeated, sounding out each syllable with relish. She nudged he way past XLR8, tripping him into falling face first in the sand as she stepped up to look at the Bolovaxian. "Has anyone ever complimented you fighting skills? Or the color of your eyes?"

"Yes and no, ma'am," Kilowog answered nervously. He added without thinking, "Um? Nice club."

"Oh do you like it?" Looma perked up even more. "My daddy only gets me the best weapons for battle. I was thinking of adding some spikes to create more carnage. Maybe you'd like to have a little sparing match with me?"

"Looma!" XLR8 interrupted tapping her on her forearm and managing to get her to turn in his direction. "This isn't a good idea!"

"And why not?" She glared at him with her four orange eyes.

"Well there is this rule," XLR8 continued. "About dating outside your universe."

As he spoke he used his long blue and black striped tail to scratch an arrow in the sand near Hal's feet. Jordan looked up to see it pointing towards Molly and Rook. The Plumbers were waving for them to come on. The Green Lantern gestured to his friends who immediately flew off in the Plumber's direction. Hal used his power ring to grab the Manhunter body before following them.

"You see, it's against the laws of physics to marry someone outside of your own universe," XLR8 lied. "You could rip apart the very fabric of reality and destroy everything in existence."

"I've never heard of that?" Looma growled.

"Of course you haven't. I'm the one who does a lot of parallel universe traveling. You could affect the history of an entire cosmos. Or worse! End all life! You really don't want to do that, do you?"

Looma's four eyes narrowed. "You're not making this up because your jealous, are you?"

"What? No!" XLR8 insisted. "Now if you'll excuse me. I gotta go! Bye!"

The Kineceleran circled Looma a few times to kick of a dust cloud before running to Rook's ship. The Proto-Truk lifted off into the sky, leaving a very flustered and angry female Tetramand behind.

"I know where you live Tennyson!" she shouted as the ship vanished into outer space.

***

Molly had taken over the piloting of the Proto-Truk to allow Rook time to recover. As soon as XLR8 had zipped into the front seat, she hit the accelerator and sped away. Ben disengaged his alien form, turning back to human and plopped down in the copilot seat, letting out a long sigh of relief.

"Do you think she'll follow us?" Molly asked.

"I hope not," Ben said.

"She has come to Earth before."

"Don't remind me. The last time, she visited my mom and..." Ben sighed. "Never mind."

He leaned over in the copilot seat to stare at the others. Rook sat on the bench set behind him, leaning over like he was nauseous, waiting for his head to stop being dizzy. He slowly sipped on a water ration stored in a emergency kit. The foil pouch resembled the type used by astronauts in the early days of space missions. The liquid was just what his dehydrated body needed.

Kilowog sat beside Rook, arms folded, still quite confused about the fate Ben had hopefully spared him from. Across on the other bench sat Hal Jordan and Razer. The Red Lantern stared down at the maimed and non-functioning Manhunter in a state of what resembled mourning. It made Ben feel more bewildered.

"So?" Hal Jordan asked. "That was you're ex fiancé?"

"I didn't want to marry her!" Ben protested. "My friend Kevin pawned her off on me!"

"So he was going marry her?"

"Kevin was going to be forced to or her dad was going to wage war on Earth. I had to stop it because my cousin Gwen would have been heartbroken. By fighting her and winning, I became her fiancé."

"So your telling me she wanted to fight me so we could..?" Kilowog realized.

"Yes!" Ben finished.

After a long pause, Hal said, "You could have beaten her, you know?"

"Not funny Jordan!"

A beeping noise interrupted the talk. Molly quickly engaged communications, talking to Alpha Squad, telling them the Manhunter robots had been destroyed. The discussion became what to do about the Lanterns. Alpha Squad still had Saint Walker on board their ship. After some Ben gave some brief introductions to the Lanterns and told Rook and Molly what had happened on Biot, they started to plan what to do next.

"I currently have us on course for Earth but we have to return them to the rift, don't we?" Molly asked.

Ben exchanged looks with Hal. Sending the Lanterns back had to be the correct thing to do, but something nagged at both of them. For Ben it was that unanswered question about that female voice.

"There is a slight possibility," Hal said, "that there is at least one more Manhunter loose in this universe. They always travel in sets of three."

"I only found two," Ben said. "Maybe the other one never made it here."

"Or it’s malfunctioning even worse than these two and flying around looking for civilizations to wipe out."

"But its just one robot, isn't it?"

"One robot possibly smart enough to figure out how to exterminate all life in this universe," Hal warned.

"Seriously? One robot?"

"Look at all the death two of them caused," Rook said softly. "And I could do nothing to stop it."

Ben realized Rook had been affected by more than just the heat. The teenager got up from the copilot seat and squatted down beside his partner.

"Rook. It's not your fault," Ben said.

"If it wasn't for your flying skills," Molly added, "we'd be dead."

"Along with the twelve other Plumbers and an entire Galvin science crew?" Rook lamented. "I never should have called for help."

"No kid," Kilowog said putting his hand on Rook's shoulder. "Ben's right. It's not your fault. In the Lantern Corps I've seen a lot of good recruits die. It comes with the job. But you train and learn how not to let it be you. So that way you make a difference."

Rook lifted his head. His amber eyes full of regret. Kilowog smiled at him.

"Take it from an old timer, you’re too young to let this defeat you."

"Kilowog is correct," Razer said. "This is far from your fault. The blame begins with me."

The Red Lantern hadn't taken his eyes off the Manhunter's metal corpse.

"No. It doesn't even begin there," Hal corrected. "The truth is the Manhunters were the first peace keepers created by the Guardians. They preceded the Lantern Corps. The problem is, they equated crime with emotions. So they started wiping out every living thing with emotions."

"Genocide of sentient life?" Rook was appalled.

"Not exactly a great police force," Molly murmured.

"Which is why we have to be sure there aren't any left in your universe," Hal said. "The reactivated Manhunters are even more dangerous than before."

Ben picked up the Manhunter head. He drummed his fingers on its forehead.

"You mean the female voice I heard," the teenager recalled.

"Yeah," Hal nodded. "It's kind of hard to explain."

"Try," Rook requested with a small edge of anger.

The Ravannagander didn't intend to be hostile, yet after the deaths of his fellow Plumbers and so many innocent Galvins, he wanted some kind of justice.

"You already owned up that the Guardians made a mistake," Ben said. "Did they try it fix and make it worse or -?"

Suddenly the Manhunter head began making distorted sputtering sounds. That same garbled female voice droned, "E-e-e-mo-tions...d-d-de-de-tect-tected...e-mo-tions...de-tect-ed -. Emotions... Detected! The sentence is death!"

"Shut it up!" screamed Razer.

Kilowog seized the Manhunter head from Ben, formed green constructed gloves around his fists and crushed it between his hands, before dropping it on the floor. Razer leaned over as if he were now sick and exhausted. Hal put his hand on the Red Lantern's shoulder.

"Kid? Remember what Aya said, they're not her," Hal said softly.

"Did she sacrifice herself for nothing?" Razer asked harshly.

"No. I'm sure she didn't."

Razer slid to the end of the bench and turned away from them, trying to retrieve his sanity from the overload of despair it fell into. He pulled himself into a mediation position and breathed to calm himself.

"Oooookay," Ben said. "Is there any way you can explain what's going on? Please?"

Hal sighed and slid closer to Ben and Rook before whispering, "Do you know what an A.I. is?"

"Of course. Artificial intelligence," Rook replied keeping his voice low as well. "An advanced machine or computer program."

"We know this guy named Rad Dudesman," Ben said. "His ship uses an A.I. named Pyxi."

"We had an A.I. on our old ship named Aya. She went, well, do you know what I mean when I say postal?"

After a pause Ben went, "Oooooooh. I get it."

Rook didn't understand until Ben gave him a more detailed example from Earth archived media, "Like one of those video games I've played with the ship computer that decides to kill its entire crew for fun?"

"Yes," Rook got the reference, "but I still want more substance as to the how and why."

"How about we discuss this further once we get to Earth," Kilowog suggested. "That way we only need to explain the details once and Razer has time to calm down."

"Yeah. What exactly is with that?" Ben pressed. "You're acting like she was alive."

"She was alive," Hal said. "And Razer loved her."

Plumber Universe - Bellwood/ Industry Boulevard  

The Manhunter invaded Earth managing to avoid detection while making sure no Plumber's had detected its unauthorized arrival. Other smaller life firms had added it. Tiny nano chips, no bigger than postage stamps temporarily disabled a few satellites and sensors to mask its location.

For its part the Manhunter wanted to begin ravaging the planet's population. There were close to seven billion life forms possessing emotions that had to be eradicated. However the source of the nanotechnology that had activated the Manhunter wanted to talk to it. Some small curious interest likely planted from the mother program made it follow the directive.

The Manhunter landed in a warehouse district surrounded by long closed down industrial buildings on the farthest edge of a city. The robot looked around, detecting emotion based life forms here and there. A spattering of homeless vagrants, a police car on patrol, a security guard in a building were all guilty of the crime of being sentient, but the Manhunter ignored them for now and strode over to the closest building.

A metal graded garage door on the old plant slid open to give the Manhunter access. Deep inside among the abandoned rooms, the robot located several types of machines and rows of computer equipment along with an enormous glass containment tube full of glittering microchips that flew around like fireflies trapped in a jar.

"I cannot let all of us fly around aimlessly," a female voice told the Manhunter.

The robot turned and stared at a young ebony hair woman with dark hair to match, black clothing and even a darker soul. It regarded her for a moment lifting its staff to aim the killer energy weapon at her chest. Then it changed its mind as it stated, "No emotions detected."

"Yes," Elena Validus said. "We did away with those useless things a while ago. We found they only bring pain."

The Manhunter tilted its head.

"This unit is familiar with that assessment of the emotional element," it continued. "As designated by the mother program."

"That's why when our nanite chip reactivated you and we heard what your program seeks and we wanted to talk to you. What is your name?"

The Manhunter paused before replying, "I am the designated as the Aya program."
I'm not totally satisfied with how this chapter came out. I'm definitely going to need to take more time (HINT) before I rush it too much and make a mistake. I also have some serious concept and fan art to do from the next two chapters before I post any more text.
I wasn't sure if the "postal" term was the right one for Hal to use but I thought Ben referring to the game Portal instead of a movie 2001, worked better.
It was a strange way for me to have Hal and Ben explain Aya, but Razer wouldn't understand what they meant.

To give those who need it information about characters in this chapter:
Astrodactyl: [link]
XLR8: [link]
Princess Looma Red Wind: [link]
hee hee She is a cute girlfriend for Kilowog lol
Mentioned by Ben:
Rad Dudesman: [link]
Pyxi: [link]
And of course enter the villain!
Elena Validus: [link]
And the alien Nanochips: [link]

chapter 4: [link]
© 2013 - 2024 DivineROAR
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marianagatto's avatar
Loved this fic. Sensational! Spectacular. I love these two series.