Pit Stop 1: The Last Flight of 775

As their drive from southern California to northern Utah took them through the vast Mojave Desert, Ben and Rook were contacted by Plumber HQ and informed that a Plumber ship that had just been stolen would be passing through the airspace near their location in just several minutes.

"Keep driving, Rook." Ben pulled up the Omnitrix. "Jetray can handle catching a single spaceship."

"I do not doubt that, Ben, but be careful." Rook said. "We do not know who or what might be on that ship."

"Don't worry about it, Rook, I'm always careful." Ben said before rolling down the passenger side window and jumping out of the Proto-TRUK as he slammed down on the Omnitrix, transforming into Jetray just before he would have hit the ground. "See ya in a minute!"

Without waiting for a response, Jetray took off into the sky, and after circling around the area a few times, spotted the stolen Plumber ship traveling up through the mesosphere a few miles away.

"Gotcha!"

Jetray shot towards the ship, catching up to it just as it breached the Kármán line. He grabbed onto the underside of the ship and twisted the Omnitrix sideways a few times to transform into Big Chill, who phased into the cockpit through the hull of the craft and detransformed right as the ship's artificial gravity kicked in. The abrupt shift in gravitational pull knocked him to the ground with an unceremonious "thud", alerting the person that had hijacked the ship to his presence.

"Who's there?!" The hijacker whipped their head towards the source of the noise.

"Oh, just your local superhero making another superheroic entrance." Ben groaned, rubbing his head as he pushed himself to his feet. "Look, man, it's getting pretty late and we're still a couple hours out from Vegas, so if you could just go ahead and put the spaceship back, that'd be grea-"

Ben paused as he looked up and suddenly recognized who he was talking to.

"Wait a second, you're that guy who escaped Area 51!" He exclaimed. "789 or something, right?"

"*775*." The Merlinisapien hissed. "*That's* the number I was assigned during my illegal captivity on this planet."

"Sorry, man, I'm not very good with numbers," Ben shrugged. "Or names. Or words. Really just things people say in general, I guess."

"What are you doing here?" 775 demanded.

"Responding to a call I got about a stolen Plumber ship." Ben said. "What are *you* doing stealing a Plumber ship? I'd figured you'd've left Earth ASAP after the whole Area 51 thing."

"I *am* leaving Earth "ASAP"." 775 snapped. "My sentence only expired several days ago."

"Your sentence? For what?"

775 gave him a flat look.

"Oh, right, the whole "attempted murder" thing." Ben snapped his fingers as he remembered. "Anyways, I dunno if anyone's told you about this or not, but Earth has spaceports now. You don't gotta steal Plumber stuff to get off-planet. I mean, granted, you probably don't have the cash on ya to buy a ticket, but I could probably hook ya up with something."

"It's a bit too late for that, Tennyson." 775 said. "It's *been* too late for a long, long time."

"...Is this because I turned into you and yelled "Overkill!" while you were being arrested?" Ben awkwardly sucked some air in through his teeth. "So, funny story, I get how bad it must've looked in hindsight, but it was actually just a reference to a joke from earlier that had nothing to do with-"

"Do you honestly think I care about what you call your transformations?" 775 interrupted him wearily. "As far as I'm concerned, you're just another cog in the machine."

"The machine?" Ben blinked a few times with a confused expression. "Like... what are we talking here, a smoothie machine or-"

"I was under the impression "just another cog in the machine" was an Earth metaphor." 775 said.

"Oh, *that* kind of-!" Ben smacked his own forehead. "Like I said, not good with words."

"Noted." 775 turned his attention back to the ship's controls. "At any rate, you really shouldn't be here right now."

"*I* shouldn't be here?" Ben threw his hands up. "Dude, *you're* the one who stole the ship!"

"Let me be more specific:" 775 said. "I sabotaged this vessel's hyperdrive core and set it to make a jump through hyperspace once it leaves your planet's exosphere. As soon as the ship tries to make that jump, it's going to explode."

"What the- why would you do that?!" Ben demanded. "Aren't you trying to use this ship to get home?!"

"Home?" 775 glared at him. "Home to what? The despotic regime that exiled me? The empty halls of a shelter that once housed a happy family? *I have no home*."

"Then why steal a spaceship?!"

"Because space is freedom." 775 said. "Infinite possibilities. Infinite, infinite stars. If I were to return this craft and go with the Plumbers quietly as you suggest, I'd just be put back in a cage."

"Actually, I know a guy who could get you off the hook pretty easy." Ben said. "Like... *way* too easy. He's like the Saul Goodman of frogs. Seriously, I know you've been through a lot, I've got no problems hooking you up with him."

"I appreciate the thought, Tennyson," 775 chuckled morosely. "But that's not what I'm talking about."

He looked out of the cockpit's front window, staring out into the vast emptiness of space.

"When that despot took over my planet, I was trapped in the cage of his regime." 775 said. "When my family was killed, I was trapped in a cage of grief. When I was exiled to Earth and imprisoned by your government, I was trapped in the cage of a prison cell. When I broke out of that cell and tried to exact revenge on the man responsible, I was arrested by the Plumbers and put right back into another cell. Even if I were to be set free after this latest incident, I cannot escape the fact that my life has become defined by cages. I can't stand being caged anymore, and if life itself has become a cage..."

He trailed off, but Ben understood what he was trying to say nonetheless.

"No, hang on, there *has* to be something else we can do here." Ben insisted. "I've got aliens that can do stuff like calm you down, make you feel better for a bit, even rewrite what you want to do outright. Granted, I can't remember which playlists they're on off-hand, but I definitely have them, so if you just give me a few minutes-"

"We don't *have* a few minutes," 775 gestured at the ship's altimeter, which indicated that they were swiftly approaching the edge of the exosphere. "And even if we did, my free will is the last thing I truly have left. Please, allow me to at least keep that."

"Fine, then I'll just..." Ben began to pace as he quickly tried to think of something. "I'll turn into Cannonbolt and curl into a ball with you inside when the ship blows! I've used him to carry people down from space before, I know he can do it, so we'll just crash-land somewhere in the desert and-"

"That's not going to happen. Please, just go while you still have the chance."

775 activated his camouflage, leaving him completely invisible. Ben lunged forward and tried to grab him, but it was too late, and his hands ended up swiping uselessly through thin air. His first thought was to turn into Wildmutt and track the Merlinisapien down using scent, but a quick glance at the altimeter told him that there might not be time. Either he tried to save 775 against his will, potentially dooming them both, or he honored his request and made sure at least one of them survived.

He thought about Rook waiting for him to return down on Earth.

He couldn't bring himself to leave him waiting forever.

"Before you leave, Tennyson, I do have one last request." 775's voice echoed from somewhere in the ship.

"What is it?" Ben asked as he pulled up the Omnitrix and transformed back into Big Chill.

"If by some miracle there is still anyone left in the universe who cares about me, tell them not to mourn." 775's voice sounded more serene than it had ever been. "Tell them... I died free."

The explosion was bright enough for Rook to see it from Earth as he was driving. A few minutes later, Big Chill silently phased back into the passenger's seat and reverted to Ben, who seemed oddly quiet. Rook, picking up that something was wrong, decided to wait a bit before asking Ben for details. After a few minutes, Ben spoke up on his own, recounting what had happened on the ship in a muttering tone that was a bit hard to understand, and after confirming a few details with him, Rook called in to report what had happened. The dispatch officer started chewing Ben out for losing the ship, at which point Rook promptly cut the feed.

Neither of them said anything over the next few miles of road.

"Should we postpone the investigation for the time being?" Rook eventually spoke up.

"No," Ben said. "If anything, I *need* something like this to keep me busy right now."

"Understood." Rook nodded.

There was a brief pause.

"Do you..." Ben hesitated a moment. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

Rook mulled over how to reply.

"...D'uruk-vi-t'ai."

"What?"

"It is an old Revonnah saying." Rook said. "Translated literally, it means "Starve or Bleed"."

"And translated... un-literally?" Ben asked.

"That will take some explaining." Rook said. "When Revonnahganders were first adopting an agricultural lifestyle, Muroids were a much more serious threat, being far larger and more aggressive than their modern-day descendants. If a pack raided an ancient Revonnahgander's farm, they had two options: do nothing and allow the pests to devour a crucial harvest, or try to fight them off and risk dismemberment or death. Starve or Bleed."

Rook paused to look over at Ben, who still looked thoroughly confused. He turned his eyes back to the road before continuing.

"It means that sometimes, there is no "right" thing to do," He elaborated. "And all that you *can* do is choose whichever option you think you can live with."

"Huh." Ben thought about it for a bit. "Guess there's nothing left to do but roll the dice."

"I *suppose* you could put it like that, but-"

"No, I mean literally." Ben interrupted him. "We're staying the night in Vegas, remember?"

"I did not take you as a gambler." Rook said.

"I'm not." Ben held up the Omnitrix. "But my good friend *Clockwork* is."

"Does it really still count as gambling if you have already foreseen the outcome?" Rook asked.

"The gamble is seeing how far you can take the winning streak before they get suspicious."

"That does not seem ethical."

"It's a casino, Rook, nothing about it is ethical." Ben stated flatly.

"...True."