Ancient X Power/Deleted Scenes

"Y'know, there's a reason the Plumbers hired me on despite...well, everything about me." Isaac tsked, wagging his finger confidently. "I admit I've been slacking over the past few years, but now that crab boy here wants to go a couple rounds..."
He turned around, looking towards the robot towering over the city.
"I think it's time I remind everyone why I'm the man who destroyed the Anti-Life Entity."
He jumped off the roof, transforming into Electrolite on the way down and zipping off towards the robot as a bolt of lightning. He landed in front of it and transformed into Temportal, catching The Puppet Master's attention.
"Well, now, isn't this familiar?" The Puppet Master hmmed. "But the same trick isn't going to work twice, Logical."
"Good thing that's not the plan, then." Temportal said.
"Oh, then what is?" The Puppet Master laughed. "If you're planning on creating a portal large enough to push this machine through, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to construct one large enough without using the rubble around you, and if there are people still alive underneath it, one slip up could mean death for them. Not that I'm discouraging you from trying, though," He chuckled. "It's quite funny how you apes squish."
"If you think that's how this is gonna play out, you've got an even worse memory than I do." Temportal slammed the dial on his chest, causing four spikes to emerge from it as he evolved into Ultimate Temportal. "And hey, I gotta admit, that's quite the accomplishment."
Before The Puppet Master could ask what that meant, he suddenly found his mech being pulled into the ground beneath him as Ultimate Temportal opened a massive portal into space right underneath its feet. He reacted by activating the machine's leg thrusters, but Ultimate Temportal slammed his hands together right as he was doing so, closing the portal around its waist. The mech's energy shield was practically impenetrable, but it could do nothing to protect the robot from the severing of spacetime itself, resulting in the top half of the robot being left behind as the lower half was left functionless and adrift in the endless void.
The Puppet Master attempted to fire on Ultimate Temportal using the top half's artillery, which seemed like it just might work until Ultimate Temportal created portals in front of each projectile redirecting them back into the barrels they came from, destroying every firing mechanism the robot had as soon as it was used.
The four-armed alien steadily advanced, his tough shell shrugging off any physical strikes from the robot's arms as if they were made from cardboard. He began cutting it apart one portal at a time, first removing the arms, then the lower torso, then the chest, and finally whittling away at the head until nothing was left except for the now-exposed cockpit being used by The Puppet Master, who Ultimate Temportal grabbed out his seat and hung upside down in the air by one of his legs.
"Unhand me, you damn dirty ape!" The Puppet Master snapped, desperately trying to electrocute him to no avail. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm ending this."
Ultimate Temportal reached forward and grabbed the control antennae off of The Puppet Master's head, then crushed it in his hands and let the broken pieces fall to the ground. The controlled bodies rampaging across the city immediately fell limp, dropping to the ground as they stopped receiving the order to move.
"HOW?!" The Puppet Master demanded. "You- you almost died multiple times fighting an inferior version of my grand machine! How did you win so easily?!"
"These days I've got people I can rely on to handle the collateral damage for me." Ultimate Temportal replied. "Last time you did this I had to worry about keeping the people around me alive too. Oh, and, uh, I've built up almost six years worth of extra experience since then, so, y'know, I think that might have contributed."
"What now, then?" The Puppet Master hissed. "I know you won't kill a helpless foe, and you know that letting me live means I'll keep coming back until I've destroyed your whole pathetic race. What will it be, Logical? Break your own pathetic moral code or allow billions more to die?
"It's not like killing you kept you from coming back anyways." Ultimate Temportal snorted. "Besides, I don't really think you get why I don't kill people."
"Oh, do tell." The Puppet Master rolled his eyes.
"There's the moral aspect, sure, but there are certain circumstances- like this one, for example- where killing someone is in fact the moral thing to do." Ultimate Temportal said. "In those cases, the main problem is just the fact that I don't wanna."
"...Excuse me?"
"I've already got a lot of crap on my plate, man, the last thing I need is even more emotional baggage."
"I see," The Puppet Master cackled. "So you're too weak to kill me."
"Eh, kinda." Ultimate Temportal shrugged. "Good thing my girlfriend isn't."
"Your wha-"
The Puppet Master was cut off as a bullet drilled straight through side of his exoskeleton and began bouncing around the inside of his skull, essentially turning his brain to mush.
"Okay, gross." Ultimate Temportal grimaced and dropped the Cerebrocrustacean's lifeless corpse as it went limp in his hands.
"What exactly was your plan there if I hadn't noticed the situation?" Moranna asked as she holstered her gun.
"Figured I'd drop him in a volcano or something." Isaac shrugged. "Technically that's on the volcano more than it is on me."
"That's...not how that works."
"Hey, if it works in my head, it works for me." Isaac said. "Either way, I wasn't gonna let the guy live. He's basically Crab Hitler."
"He's an alien, so wouldn't that technically make him Space Hitler?" Napoleon piped in.
"No, no, no, Space Hitler is a different Hitler, The Puppet Master is definitely Crab Hitler." Isaac shook his head. "You gotta learn how to properly categorize your Hitlers. Hop on Twitter, you'll find plenty to practice with."
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 Cold open from the POV of a mine worker dismissing old rumors about a monster in the mines and then getting killed by a monster in the mines. Played for horror. Some details thrown in establishing this as a follow-up to 
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[Opening]
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 Scene Intro: Triumvirate HQ. Terminal and Crow are arguing while Sephtis is zoning out behind his desk.
"Okay, let me get this straight:" Crow hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "We told you not to kill any Techs, so you go behind our backs and use resources from Project Rapture to resurrect some random bounty hunter to do it for you?!"
"Actually, I hired him to destroy AI in the Omnitrix, not the girl, and he didn't even go through with that, so does it really matter?" Terminal tsked. "And for the record, this wasn't just "some random bounty hunter", it was an Apocalypse Metamentian."
"An Apocalypse what now?"
"Ah, apologies, I forgot that you're all idiots." Terminal waved him off. "Apocalypse Metamentians are a temporally anomalous species of Metamentians hailing from a version of this planet that was thrust into non-temporal space during an apocalyptic meteoric impact event. Their anomalous properties make them immeasurably strong, all but invincible, and practically immortal when encountered outside of their home planet."
"And you don't think that could be an issue if someone hires him to go after us?" Crow's left eye twitched.
"Surely this organization has enough resources to outbid anyone else for his services." Terminal dismissed the idea. "Besides, he has weaknesses, you just have to be intelligent enough to find them."
"And I assume you wouldn't be dumb enough to tell us that unless you'd found them already?"
"Oh look, it's learning." Terminal chortled. "Yes, as a matter of fact, when I reconstructed his armor, I programmed it to send visual and audio data back to me, and as it turns out, he has no immunity to Lucius Raivent's hellfire abilities. If he ever presents a threat to us, we can simply manipulate those two into fighting, and no matter who wins, this organization comes out on top, does it not?"
"That little shit!" Sephtis suddenly slammed a fist onto his desk, startling Terminal and Crow.
"Lucius?" Crow raised an eyebrow. "Still bitter about getting overthrown by a fourteen-year-old?"
"No, I-" Sephtis paused for a moment. "Well, yes, actually, I'm infuriated beyond words, but that's not the specific issue here."
"Then what-"
"He's using his hellfire abilities on a regular basis now!" Sephtis seethed, slamming his other fist onto the desk. "Do you have any idea how useful those would have been to the organization before he betrayed me?! Obtaining that demonic firepower is the entire reason I brought him into existence, but he continuously refused to use it on some ridiculous emotional basis, and now he's just throwing it around left and right! It's bullshit!"
"If it was an emotional block, he's probably just grown as a person since then." Crow pointed out. "Either way, I'm not sure what you were expecting from the literal devil, a figure best known for pulling off the most egregious father betrayal of all time."
"Hindsight is 20/20, Crow, hindsight is 20/20." Sephtis sighed frustratedly.
"And foresight is 0/0, apparently." Terminal snorted under his breath.
"This coming from the asshole who died to his own giant robot death beam." Crow rolled his eyes.
"Shut up." Terminal turned his attention back to Sephtis. "Now, I'm aware reviving the bounty hunter without informing you may have placed a slight stain on my credibility, but I do actually have someone else in mind whose revival could prove quite beneficial to this organization. Someone I've personally worked with before, as a matter of fact."
"Oh, really?" Sephtis raised an eyebrow. "And who would that be?"
"You're not seriously entertaining this, are you?" Crow asked with a scowl.
"I might be."
"Well, that's good, because I've already revived him." Terminal said. "Gentlemen- and Crow-, allow me to introduce to you..."
He beckoned towards the opened doorway, prompting a tall man in an ornate, intimidating suit of golden armor to step into the room, his head covered with a helmet resembling an Egyptian nemes and his face obscured beneath an emotionless golden mask.
"Dethrogue."
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"Ah, good 'ol creepy cave." Napoleon said. "Hard to believe you came in alone the first time you were here."
"I wasn't alone, I had Alvono." Isaac grunted. "Not that that's much better than being alone, but he was still technically there. Plus I wanted to die at the time so my fear response was basically null."
"Y-you wanted to die?" Teresa sounded surprised.
"Hm?" Isaac took a second to process the question. "Oh, yeah, yeah. Back in the day I was one big pile of mental problems. Still am, but I've got a handle on it."
"W-was it depression or did something happen?" Teresa asked. "I-if you're okay with talking about it."
"Mixa' both." Isaac shrugged. "Depression runs in the family- got my fair share of relatives who blew their brains out- but it only started showing up in force after the crap with The Puppet Master."
"Who?" Teresa blinked.
"Some Cerebrocrustacean who was real up his own ass, apparently." Napoleon said. "Isaac killed him before he recruited us, so I never got to see the guy myself."
"I didn't kill him, I redirected one of his mech's Omega Beams at his cockpit and he poured way more power into it than I thought he would/could." Isaac shot him an annoyed look. "I don't think it's my fault he looked at an alien that can create impromptu portals and decided to blast at it with something strong enough to rip through his own hull."
"But if you hadn't redirected the shot at his cockpit, he wouldn't have died from it, so it is still technically your fault." Moranna pointed out.
"I literally dragged that stupid robot through the center of the sun and nothing happened!" Isaac snapped. "My bad for assuming it would hold up against something significantly less powerful than the sun!."
"I-I defeated Nightmare OS by throwing it into just the surface of the sun, a-and it had all of our powers and more." Teresa pointed out. "I-I think that was a fair assumption."
"Thank you!" Isaac threw up his arms. "Jeez!"
"S-so was that what set off your depression?"
"Huh?" Isaac blinked. "Oh, no, not at all; dude was so racist it'd be like getting depressed about accidentally killing Hitler. The thing that got my spiral going happened when I met him for the first time a couple years before that." Isaac paused as they clambered over a rough stack of rocks. "Long story short, he was kidnapping humans and using them as neural batteries to try and increase his ship's processing power. Once they "ran out of juice", he had a system set up that would just dump their bodies into an incineration chamber." He sighed aggressively. "My dumb ass accidentally ended up in the incinerator when I broke into his ship. I don't know if he bought one on the cheap or what, but there were a lot of bones in there that hadn't been fully incinerated. Could handle something like that fine today, but since I was twelve at the time, being covered in dead person ash and surrounded by human bone fragments kinda fucked me up a bit."
"That's awful!" Teresa's eyes widened. "I-I'm so sorry that happened!"
"Thanks, but it's like, "whatever" now, y'know?" Isaac said while dodging a stalactite in their way. "You think that's bad, you should hear Moranna's backstory."
"Moranna's-?"
"I was kidnapped as a baby by an alien assassin organization and gradually had the majority of my body replaced with cybernetic enhancements to become a more efficient killer." Moranna interrupted the question. "I'd rather not have to relive the details."
"Th-that's...wow." Teresa blinked. "I-I'm not sure how to approach that."
"That's alright by me."
"S-so, what about you?" Teresa looked at Napoleon. "Did...something happen to you too, or...?"
"Yeah, but my problems were a bit more low-key." Napoleon shrugged. "Parents got sick of my shit and shipped me off to boot camp, but I broke out when they tried shaving my head and ended up running away to Chicago. Had a whole character arc and eventually went back to my folks to work things out."
"O-oh, um, okay." Teresa paused for a moment. "W-wait, don't you live in Arizona?"
"Yeah, why?"
"H-how did you end up in Chicago?"
"I blew into the windy city like the tumbleweeds of my desert home blew across the countryside," Napoleon replied in an overdramatic voice. "Nah, but for real, I just hitchhiked with random people until I felt like I was far enough away. Didn't have any real plan in mind."
"The fact that you hitchhiked that whole way and didn't get murdered is honestly a testament to your bullshit luck." Isaac snorted.
"Yeah, I kinda realized that after the fact, but whatcha' gonna do?"
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"Well, well, well, it looks like we're right back here again." The Puppet Master said mockingly. "Too bad you don't have those obnoxious Magisters around to save you this time!"
"Sure, but I'm not exactly alone here either!" Isaac gestured to his allies. "You might've been a problem back in the day, but guess what? You're not fighting literal children anymore!"
"As if these fools are going to make a difference!" The Puppet Master laughed. "You have, what, an anime cosplayer and what appears to be..." He paused as he focused on Moranna. "What, some sort of ninja? A bit stereotypical to have a Japanese person fill in the 'ninja' role on your team, isn't it?"
"I'm a cyborg assassin, not a ninja." Moranna glared up at him. "I'm not even dressed like a ninja. If you want to talk about stereotypes, assuming that the one Japanese person in the group must be a ninja seems a lot more egregious."
"True, but I should clarify that I don't actually care." The Puppet Master replied. "I think all humans are a bunch of savage, underevolved monkeys, I was just trying to be a pain in the ass."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, all humans?" Isaac asked. "Including Dethrogue?"
"Of course including Dethrogue, why?"
"Ooh, that's not a good look, my dude." Isaac sucked some air in through his teeth. "You can't just call an African guy a 'savage monkey', man, that's pretty fucked up."
"Well, I-I wasn't saying it about him specifically, I was making a general statement about all of you," The Puppet Master protested. "I'm not-" He paused for a moment. "Wait, why should I care about avoiding sensitive racial epithets your idiotic species decided to insult itself with in the first place? This is a you problem, not a me problem."
"Oh, so, what, you think slurs are fine?!" Isaac began yelling louder. "Hey, everybody, this guy's about to say the N-word!"
"Wha- no I'm no-"
"Whoa, man, you're about to say the N-word?!" A fleeing citizen paused to yell at The Puppet Master's robot from nearby. "Even for a guy destroying our city, that's pretty fucked up!"
"Now hold on a minute-"
"Too late, man, #RoboRacist is already trending." Napoleon said, looking at his phone. "You've just been canceled on Twitter.com."
"How?! That was seconds ago!"
"Life moves fast in the internet age, man." Isaac shrugged. "Gotta try and keep up."
"What- but- but I-" The Puppet Master stammered for a moment, seemingly lost for words. "What is even going on?!"
"Just putting on a bit of a show to put you back in your place." Isaac said, crossing his arms smugly. "You can try being a pain in the ass all you want..." He jabbed a thumb at himself and smirked. "But nobody's a bigger pain in the ass than me!"
"Alright, I want all of you working on search and rescue operations," Isaac stated. "We need to minimize casualties from this asshole."
"W-wait, what about you?" Teresa asked. "A-are you can fight that thing alone?"
"Not really, but that's not the plan." Isaac took a moment to crack his neck and roll his shoulders back while straightening out his posture. "I've got an idea about what's going on here, and if I'm right, I can probably take that thing down quick."
"Considering that this is you we're talking about, that's a major "if." Aquadilus said dryly.
"You say that, but I've got a pretty good track record of my wild guesses working out." Isaac said. "Either way, I gotta get going before crab cakes here starts racking up a kill count." He hung up on the call. "Later."
"Isaac." Moranna put a hand on his shoulder. "I trust you, but please be careful. It's been a long time since you fought something this powerful without us."
"Don't worry about me, just focus on protecting the people who can't come back when they die." Isaac gave her a reassuring kiss on the cheek. "I'll be the first to admit I've kinda fallen off over the years, but when push comes to shove..."
He walked over to the edge of the roof and glanced back one last time, wearing a confident smirk.
"I'm still the leader of this team for a reason."
With that, he jumped off the roof and transformed into Electrolite, zipping out towards the rampaging machine as a bolt of lightning.
"Welp, that's our cue to get cracking." Napoleon stretched his arms out. "We've got a city to save."
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== Continuity Notes ==
===Franchise Continuity===
* The Shielbasa Iron Mine and the Death Hounds inside were introduced in the Tech 10: Rebooted S1 episode Into the Pit, where Isaac fought and killed a Death Hound in the mine. The episode ended with the revelation that the Death Hound had made a nest in another part of the cavern system and laid eggs, with one of the eggs beginning to hatch. The hatched Death Hound was found and dealt with in the S2 episode Unfinished Business, but the fate of the rest of the eggs was left unclear, hence the existence of the Death Hounds in this episode.
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"I don't mean to pry, but is there a reason we're jumping around downtown in the middle of the night?" CROSS asked.
"More nightmares. Couldn't sleep." Dupligato sighed defeatedly. "Needed to do something to keep my mind off it. As for why we're downtown..."
She paused, tilting her head to the side and flicking one of her ears.
"...I'm not really sure." She said after thinking for a moment. "When I turned into Dupligato, I just...suddenly got this huge energy rush and started jumping shadows on instinct."
"Oh yeah, you haven't really used Dupligato at night outside of battle, have you?"
"I don't think I have, no." Dupligato said. "Why?"
"This is one of those species instincts you're not used to yet." CROSS explained. "Yamineko are a crepuscular species, meaning they're typically most active around the hours of dawn and dusk, but some, like the Yamineko, are also active under sufficient moonlight."
"But the moon's not very full right now." Dupligato tilted her head up, looking at the crescent-shaped moon above them.
"Right, but their bodies don't actually know the difference between a night with a lot of moonlight and a night with a lot of light pollution, which..."
"Oh." Dupligato glanced around in a circle, noting the bright city lights glowing all around them. "Wait, so...if Dupligato's a cat alien...does that mean I just got the zoomies?"
"Basically."
"Huh." Dupligato blinked. "...I don't really know what to do now, though."
"We could go see Dr. Krauze." CROSS suggested. "It's been a while since you two actually sat down and talked."
"But it's two in the morning." Dupligato flicked her tail nervously. "Would she even be awake?"
"Going to bed at two would be early for her." CROSS explained. "She only tries to keep a healthy sleep schedule when Christine's staying over."
"Well...alright." Dupligato nodded. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to check."
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After about five minutes of shadow hopping, Dupligato reached Dr. Krauze's house, having foregone taking the Cross Bullet due to the noise it would make. She emerged from the shadow of a bush in the front yard and instinctively made a brief scan of her surroundings before heading to the door, which was, as usual, had been left slightly ajar.
"She doesn't lock the door at night?" Dupligato tilted her head and put her right ear down.
"She locks it at night about as much as she does at any other time." CROSS sighed. "So, no, not much. It's amazing she hasn't been robbed."
"Dr. Krauze?" Dupligato called out as she entered the house, closing and locking the door behind her. "Are you here?"
There was no response, and the entirety of the upstairs seemed empty, but Dupligato's instincts told her that someone was present. She began focusing on the input she was received from her enhanced senses, flicking her ears around to try and pick up any directional sound and sniffing the air as she tried to figure out which scents around her were which.
"Getting anything?" The CrossTrix dial displayed a question mark.
"I'm...pretty sure she's in her lab." Dupligato replied hesitantly. "I can hear the sound of computer fans coming from the stairwell, and there's something down there I think is a person."
"You aren't sure?"
"I'm mostly sure, but I've never really tried to work out what a human smells like, so I'm just going along with Dupligato's gut feeling."
"In that case it probably is her." CROSS said. "Yamineko are incredibly observant even when they're not trying to be, so their gut feelings tend to more reliable than most."
"I guess that makes sense." Dupligato tapped on the CrossTrix dial, reverting back to Teresa. "I-I don't want to startle her by jumping out of a shadow, s-so I'm just going to take the stairs."
"Good call."
Teresa walked down the stairwell and entered Dr. Krauze's office, finding her seated at her desk and staring intently at what looked like a miniature Cross Bullet that had orange paneling instead of blue. Teresa hesitated. This was the most serious she'd ever seen the happy-go-lucky scientist look, and something about the way she was looking at the train car just felt...off.
"Uh, doc?" CROSS was the first to speak. "What are you doing?"
Dr. Krauze jumped a bit and whirled around in her office chair to face them, clenching her eyes shut and shaking her head out as if she had just been released from a trance.
"Oh, um, I was just-" She paused as her brain caught up with her eyes and she finally processed Teresa standing in the doorway. "Wait, Teresa? What are you doing up this late? Is something wrong?"
"I-I mean, n-nothing other than the usual." Teresa mumbled, rubbing her right arm uncomfortably.
"She's been having flashbacks in her dreams and can't sleep." CROSS explained bluntly. "I suggested you two should have a sit-down with each other to pass the time."
"It has been a while since I did a proper checkup." Dr. Krauze nodded absentmindedly. "We've spent so much time trying to fix the external interference with the CrossTrix that I haven't had a chance to make sure its normal functions aren't causing any problems either."
"Not exactly what I meant, but that is probably a good idea." The CrossTrix dial displayed a shrugging emote. "Teresa, are you alright with that?"
"Y-yeah." Teresa nodded. "L-like you said, i-it's probably a good idea."
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"S-so, um..." Teresa winced as Dr. Krauze began taking a blood sample. "Is...there a reason you were looking at that model train so intensely? Y-you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, but it did k-kind of worry me."
"Really?" Dr. Krauze seemed surprised. "I didn't pay much attention to how I was looking at it."
"Doc, you had the same expression on you that Zephyr gets when she's hungry in her Aviace form and spots a deer." CROSS stated. "It was pretty menacing."
"That bad, huh?" She sighed as she finished taking the blood sample and placed a small bandage over the corresponding wound. "Sorry about that, it's just...that isn't a model train."
"Wh-what is it?" Teresa looked confused.
"It's a new car for the Cross Bullet," Dr. Krauze explained. "But it's...not an invention I'm proud of making."
"Wait, did you actually go through with finishing the Cross Blade?" CROSS questioned incredulously.
Dr. Krauze nodded.
"What- why would you do that?!"
"I-I'm sorry, but wh-what's a Cross Blade?" Teresa interjected.
"In the original plans for the CrossTrix, it was meant to be a companion to the Cross Bullet that transformed into a sword instead of a robot." Dr. Krauze explained. "The idea was that in case of an emergency, landing a hit with it would erase the DNA of an Evolvyrn, forcing them out of their transformations and rendering their associated DNA Key useless."
"Th-that actually sounds pretty usefu-" Teresa paused as she abruptly noticed something odd about the first sentence. "W-wait, did you say the Cross Bullet transforms into a-"
"We can get into that later." Dr. Krauze interrupted her. "Sorry, I don't mean to cut you off, but this is important."
"O-okay." Teresa shrank away a bit, feeling like she had done something wrong.
"Hang on, Teresa, you're fine." Dr. Krauze took a moment to assure her, having noticed her change in body language. "Conversations can get messy, it happens. Anyways, there was a problem with how the Cross Blade worked. During testing, I found out that even if it came into contact with untransformed cells, it would still erase their DNA, essentially condemning its target to a slow, painful death that not even a transformation matrix could prevent. I tried everything I could think of to fix the problem, but nothing worked, so I ended up abandoning the project halfway through."
"Which once again brings up the question of why you decided to finish it." The CrossTrix dial displayed a scowling emote.
"Because desperate times call for desperate measures." Dr. Krauze sighed. "We've made enemies of very powerful, very twisted individuals, and I want you to have something you can reliably defend yourself with." She gestured at Teresa.
"W-wait, me?!" Teresa exclaimed. "I-I don't want to use a weapon that dangerous!"
"I know." Dr. Krauze said. "That's why you're the only person I can trust to wield it responsibly."
"This seems like an inappropriate amount of pressure to be putting on someone who really doesn't need it, Doc." CROSS said.
"That's not-" Dr. Krauze sighed and leaned towards Teresa to place a hand on her shoulder. "Look, you don't ever have to use it if you don't want to. I just want you to have something extra to defend yourself with if you end up fighting someone like Messias."
"Still-"
"I-it's okay, CROSS." Teresa interjected. "I...actually think it's a good idea."
"Really?" CROSS and Dr. Krauze spoke at the same time, both sounding equally surprised.
"Messias's new form- P-Platinum Rapture- it's only as strong as it is because it's a combination of every Evolvyrn's DNA, right?" Teresa said. "If he l-learns how to use it better, a weapon that can destroy DNA is the best chance we have of taking it down."
"That's...actually a really good point." CROSS admitted.
"And since he's a coward who only ever shows up using his android duplicates, there's no risk of destroying his human DNA if you hit him while he's detransformed." Dr. Krauze said.
"Sure, but what if he actually shows up in person one day?" CROSS said.
"...I hope he does." Teresa muttered, her eyes narrowing as she looked down at the floor.
Dr. Krauze gave the CrossTrix a concerned look. CROSS's only response was a short shrugging animation on the device's dial.
"Not that I don't share the sentiment," She said to Teresa. "But hearing that from you is...kind of worrying."
Teresa's innate fear of disappointing people briefly surged up and overtook her burning hatred for Messias; only for a moment, granted, but it was enough to make her think.
"I...I know it's not what you'd expect from me, and t-to be honest, it's not what I'd expect from myself, but I just...I hate him." She said. "I-I've never really hated another person before, s-so I don't know if it's normal or not, but...I want him dead. I want to see him bleed. Th-the only person I've ever felt like that about before is..." She hesitated for a moment. "...Is me."
"We really need to get you a therapist." Dr. Krauze said. "I mean, you needed one back when we first met, but after everything that's happened this summer, you really, really need one."
Teresa fidgeted uncomfortably in place.
"Not the most helpful thing to say right now, Doc." CROSS interjected. "Trust me. She knows."
"I know, I'm sorry, I just..." Dr. Krauze let out a defeated sigh. "I don't know what to say. I wish I had some sort of advice for you, but dealing with trauma isn't exactly something I'm good at."
An awkward silence hung in the air as none of the three knew how to continue the conversation. Dr. Krauze eventually cleared her throat and decided to go back to their original topic. She picked up the Cross Blade and handed it to Teresa, then pulled a key with a handle resembling a railroad crossing sign out of her lab coat's front pocket.
"This," She held up the key in front of her. "Is the key used to unlock the Cross Blade's DNA destruction feature. In sword mode, it'll have a keyhole on its hilt. While it can accept any key compatible with the transformation lock system, only this one will activate the genetic dissolution engine."
"Wh-what happens if I use a different key?" Teresa hesitantly took the object as Dr. Krauze handed it to her.
"That's where things get a little less 'doom and gloom' and a little more fun." Dr. Krauze cracked a grin. "The material used for the core of the Cross Blade is an organic metal taken from the molt of an Iron Spider, making it compatible with a built-in matrix that takes data from the inserted DNA key and modifies the sword to channel its abilities."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Teresa looked a bit confused.
"Well, like, for example, let's say you used the Psioknight DNA Key for it," Dr. Krauze began to explain. "It would allow the sword to generate psychic energy you could use for stuff like long-range telekinetic slashing attacks."
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"Tremble in fear, you pathetic apes!" The Puppet Master cackled maniacally as he aimed his mech's next step towards a panicked child that had tripped and fallen while trying to flee. "Now there are none to stand in my way!"
Skyjack swooped in and snatched the kid out of the way just before the robot's foot landed, setting him down safely off to the side.
"You okay?" Skyjack asked.
The boy started to nod, but abruptly stopped as he noticed the CrossTrix Dial on her chest.
"Hey, you're that Omnitrix guy who pulled me out of the road, aren'tcha?!" The kid jabbed a finger at the CrossTrix dial. "I didn't know you could be a bird guy too! Awesome! I wish I could be a bird guy!" He paused for a moment as he seemed to be considering something. "Hey, who are you, anyways? Are you a superhero?! I bet you're a superhero! Are you gonna save us from the evil robot guy?!"
"Just call me Tech." Skyjack replied. "I'm...not really a superhero, but...I am going to try and stop him."
"With your superpowers?"
"Well...yeah? I guess?"
"Then you're a superhero!" The kid exclaimed, throwing his arms up excitedly. "Go kick his butt, Tech!"
"No matter what this power is..." Teresa painfully pushed herself to her feet. "No matter where it comes from..."
The number wheels on the back of the CrossTrix's gauntlet form began to spin on their own.
"It's mine to use now." She continued. "Whether I want it or not. And as long as it's mine to wield..."
She thrust the CrossTrix in the air as the number wheels finally settled on the combination 0-0-1. Various alien parts began to generate around her, hovering around her body like a makeshift transformation field.
"I get to decide how to use it!"
The alien parts slammed into her body, creating a blue flash of light as the energy of ten different transformations clashed and melded together into a single being. As the light faded, it was obvious that Teresa had transformed into Nightmare, but the fusion's color scheme was significantly different from what it was before. Rather than being a monochrome white or black, each alien part retained its original colors, and the red energy flowing through the form had changed to match the CrossTrix's own turquoise glow.
"Teresa, are you okay?" CROSS asked worriedly.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Nightmare nodded at him. "I'm in control."
"Do you really think some mediocre fusion is going to be enough to bring down my glorious machine?!" The Puppet Master laughed. "Hit me with however many alien powers you want! You're not going to accomplish a damn thing, you pest!"
"Yeah, Nightmare's probably not enough to beat you." Nightmare replied, pulling up the CrossTrix as she did so. "But it's not what I'm using to fight."
She flipped the number dials to the combination 1-1-3, causing the CrossTrix to assume a purple and gold color scheme.
"I've had enough of nightmares lately." She stated as she activated the dial. "So today-"
She slammed down on the CrossTrix dial without selecting an alien, causing the raw energy of her Titania transformations to flow directly into her body, altering and evolving it the same way it would with any other alien form. By the time the purple energy consuming her body had faded, revealing a drastically altered version of Nightmare. Her mismatched body had been reshaped into one that combined elements from the Titania versions of her aliens into a cohesive whole draped in various regal shades of purple and gold.
"-I choose to Dream!"
The Puppet Master snarled and immediately tried to crush her with the right leg of his massive machine. At first, it seemed as if he had succeeded; as soon as he moved the leg to check, however, Dream sprang up out of her liquified form and fired two streams of liquid explosive at the machine, drenching its energy field with the substance. She followed up with a massive sonic blast that slammed into the liquid with enough force to detonate it, creating a massive explosion that sent the robot tumbling over backwards, falling into its own shadow and emerging from the shadow of a crater on the moon.
Dream followed shortly behind, latching onto the robot's energy shield with her arm spikes and using them to channel Thermosnap's temperature manipulation abilities, raising the temperature inside the shield by hundreds of degrees each second until the robot's metal form began visibly sagging. Faced with no other options, The Puppet Master disabled the energy field, creating an explosion of heat as the contained thermal energy was suddenly released.
He turned the robot around and fired a beam of destructive energy at Dream, only for his target to dissipate on impact, revealing it to have been a shadow clone. Before he was able to determine the location of the real thing, she flew up behind the machine and curled herself into a massive armored wheel, launching herself forward to knock it back into the shadows.
She and the robot both emerged in the middle of an icy wasteland somewhere in Antarctica, where she unfurled and landed carefully on her feet as The Puppet Master struggled with the robot's controls, trying to keep it steady. As soon as its balance was restored, he attempted to reactivate the energy shield, but all he got from flipping the switch linked to it were a few wayward sparks.
"What the- What did you do?!" He demanded with a furious growl.
"I kept track of which electrical current disappeared when you turned off the energy shield and fried the generator it had gone to." Dream explained.
"That's not possible!" The Puppet Master hissed. "This machine has an anti-electrack diode! Its electromagnetic functions are impossible to detect from the outside!"
"It probably would be invisible to any ordinary lifeform," CROSS stated. "But I doubt it's designed to deal with the powers of a Titania Form."
"WHAT THE HELL IS A TITANIA FORM?!"
"It's something like this:" Dream pulled up the CrossTrix and selected an alien, transforming from the Titania fusion she has christened as "Dream" into Daitenryu Titania.
"Uh, Teresa?" The CrossTrix beeped. "What are you doing? I trust your planning skills, but you just cut your power tenfold."
"Dream's vocal chords are different than Daitenryu's. I'm not sure I could sing one of her hymns correctly without practice." Daitenryu Titania explained. "And I can't afford to mess up a single note with what I'm about to do."
"Hold on a moment, I hearing this conversation correctly?" The Puppet Master interjected with a snort. "Your grand plan here is singing at me?"
"It's why I brought you back to Earth instead of leaving you on the moon." Daitenryu Titania gently rose into the air, with an almost blinding aura of light forming behind her head. "I need an atmosphere to sing."
"I have to admit, I'm somewhat impressed." The Puppet Master cackled. "I've never seen someone with such bravado for such an idiotic plan."
"Perhaps if you had taken the time to truly learn about other species rather than spending your life looking down on them, you might know how ironic that statement is."
With that, Daitenryu Titania began to sing.
The Puppet Master braced for the impact of a sonic attack of some kind, but none ever came. There was nothing emanating from his opponent other than her voice. Laughing at himself a bit for having any kind of concern in the first place, he reached one of the robot's hands out towards the draconic alien, intending to squash her between its fingers and be done with it.