Awful Tower

***Awful Tower*** is the twenty-seventh *Ultimate Alien* chapter of *Clock 10: Choose Your Own Adventure*.

## Plot

The team becomes aware of monsters attacking Paris, France. Upon being insulted by Clock while flying above the city, Kevin finally makes good on his threat and knocks Clock out of the ship. Clock saves himself by propelling down to the ground with Swampfire, but on the wrong side of the river. He gets to the other side, and the Ultimatrix glitches upon transforming him back. The device restricts him to Swampfire, Water Hazard, NRG, and Spitter.

Clock uses Water Hazard to open a hydropowered gate, then becomes NRG to explode a wall by igniting methane. This causes him to then trek through some toxic materials before fighting some Null Void creatures, comprised of Havok Beasts, Wigsillian Org Beasts, and Vulpimancers. Forever Knights arrive, remarking on keeping Clock away from "the Relic." Clock opts to change to Spitter, and neutralizes the enemies. He then crawls through a window (breaking the wall a bit due to Spitter's size) and continues through the building the Knights came from.

Spitter neutralizes the Knights in the castle and then notices a green glow within a sculpted dragon head. Inside is a lever surrounded by toxic waste. He heads into the head as NRG and pulls the lever, causing a methane gas leak. Coming out, he becomes Swampfire again and lights up the methane. This burns a tapestry atop the staircase and reveals the exit from the room.

Upon going through the exit, Clock reaches a thin brick wall and hears voices on the other side. Realizing the voices, Clock breaks down the wall, finding the Vreedle Brothers. Clock becomes Swampfire again and knocks them away. Disgruntled, the two get up, and Octagon begins firing blasts at him, which temporarily destroys Swampfire's head before it's easily regenerated. Swampfire bluffs a threat of using Rath, but changes into Spitter instead to try to stick the two brothers with adhesives. Octagon blasts the spit mid-air, remarking about previous encounters with Spitter's species as many of them are pirates. Spitter easily distracts them before turning into Swampfire again and using sleeping spores to knock them out. It's initially ineffective due to them not having noses, but they breathe them in through their mouths when talking.

An explosion bursts through the wall, damaging Swampfire and the sleeping Vreedles. When the smoke clears, Sunder arrives and takes the Relic. Swampfire tries and fails to use the sleeping spores on him as well, and he makes his escape. Swampfire follows but loses him, and meets with a Wigsillian Org Beast that counters his adhesive mud. Swampfire switches to NRG and easily subdues the creature. His attention is then grabbed by a television which plays *The Will Harangue Nation*. Harangue continues his criticisms of Clock's actions while showing video footage of his time in Rome and Paris, supplied by "a reliable but anonymous" source.

NRG leaves the area and goes out into the streets, finding them swarmed with Null Void creatures. Being mindful of civilians, NRG opens his containment suit and flies about to take out several of the creatures. Unfortunately, one of the blasts sets a building on fire. NRG returns to the suit and becomes Water Hazard to put out the fire, and sees Sunder headed for the Eiffel Tower. He switches to Swampfire to propel himself up into the air, reaching the tower at the same time as Sunder, only after saving civilians from Sunder throwing cars and destroying bridges, and becomes Ultimate Swampfire to fight him.

Ultimate Swampfire sends a stream of kerosene-fueled flames that Sunder redirects back at him with his axe, but Ultimate Swampfire tanks it due to his fire immunity. Ultimate Swampfire then throws out seeds to wrap plants around Sunder and prevent him from using his axe. Losing his axe and hoverboard, Sunder takes hold of the relic, which powers him up greatly, letting him burst from the plants. Despite his increased power, Ultimate Swampfire fights dirty, and a blow below the belt knocks Sunder out. Ultimate Swampfire takes the relic and leaves.

Back on the Rustbucket, the group is incapable of getting in contact with the Plumbers that went to the cosmic storm. Kevin asks about the ones on Earth, but Taryn mentions they're chatty about something, and that the ones who are available are working on something "more local," but couldn't get more out of Magister Patelliday than that. The communications screen on the ship then shows footage of the Plumber ships reaching the cosmic storm only to be destroyed by a yellow beam of energy.

Azmuth then arrives and rewinds the footage, pointing out the silhouette of a To'kustar in the cosmic storm just before the yellow beam destroyed the ships. He then notices the Relic gained from Paris, and reveals it as being a piece of the Potis Altiare. The device was made by the ancient Galvan to enhance the powers of its user. However, fearing its use for evil, they dismantled the device and sent it to Earth; Azmuth explains that Earth is such a "backwards and primitive" planet that even if discovered, the humans wouldn't know what to do with the Potis Altiare. However, he elaborates that while humans never *directly* acknowledged the device, it did indirectly impact the environments and societies surrounding them.

Azmuth inquires as to places with extraterrestrial histories. Clock suggests Area 51, but the location was still destroyed since the events of *Prisoner Number 775 is Missing*; Azmuth also mentions this is potentially someone looking for the Potis Altiare. Kevin suggests Roswell, but Azmuth elaborates on this simply being an event dealing with Geralt Firefly and Xylene. Charmcaster then suggests Devil's Tower, and Taryn remarks on seeing alien activity there recently. This then becomes their next target.

## Major Events

* Upon finding the second piece of the Potis Altiare, Clock keeps it, and Azmuth reveals its origins.
* The evil To'kustar is revealed as the enemy.

## Characters

* Clockwork Firefly
* Taryn Firefly
* Kevin Levin
* Charmcaster
* Azmuth

### Villains

* Null Void Creatures
* Forever Knights
* Octagon Vreedle
* Rhomboid Vreedle
* Sunder
* Albedo *(footage only)*

## Aliens Used

### Clockwork Firefly

* Swampfire *(5x)*
	+ Ultimate Swampfire
* Water Hazard *(2x)*
* NRG *(3x)*
* Spitter *(2x)*

## Trivia

* Azmuth's theory regarding Area 51 is correct, as Psyphon destroyed the location looking for a piece.
	+ This is to make up for the original story relating to Old George and Dagon, which were completely omitted in this story.
* Roswell being an event in the history of Geralt Firefly and Xylene is a nod to the line "We'll always have Roswell" from *The Visitor*.