You all surpassed the Power Stones goal twice, so here are two extra chapters.
______________________________________
"Where's Tennyson?" asked Attea.
"He's busy in another universe."
"Another universe? Are you from another one too?"
"You don't need to know that, just answer what I asked," Kaito replied calmly.
"Tsk, here," she said, tossing him what looked like alien keys. "They're for my personal ship. It's the fastest one here. Not very big, but it can comfortably carry around five people."
Kaito took the keys between his fingers, curious.
"Still using keys?"
Attea shrugged.
"Can you even pilot it?"
"I have an alien in my team, don't worry," Kaito said before adding, "By the way, use the controller you have to call back the Tokustars. Even if the Plumbers can send them to the Void, save them the trouble."
"You sure have a lot of demands, huh?" Attea replied with a mocking tone, pointing at the Carnitrix on Kaito's wrist. "Can't you just fix them all with that?"
Kaito held back a laugh at how absurd the idea was. If an Omnitrix that created distorted, monstrous versions of aliens could actually reverse that same process, then the Azmuth of the Carnitrix Universe was a complete idiot.
"It doesn't work that way. Just do what I say."
Attea watched him from the throne, from which she had at some point displaced her father, and smiled. "Alright. By the way, don't you want to be Emperor? The position's open now," she said with clear insinuation.
Kaito chuckled lightly. "You know, you're the second princess to flirt with me in a short time. Besides, aren't you supposed to dislike humans?"
She looked at him with a mix of mockery and curiosity. "You? A human? Yeah, right. You may look like one, but I can see it. You're something else, something much greater."
"That's the strangest pickup line I've ever heard," Kaito said, turning away. "Anyway, see you, Attea."
He left the place calmly and headed for the ship, which he found easily thanks to the keys. Ignoring the chaos on Earth caused by the current situation, he boarded, gathered his group, and took off toward the first location.
---
In a space station that looked like a futuristic laboratory, someone with a human appearance, identical to Ben Tennyson except for his pale skin, white hair, and red eyes, was focused on his experiments. His calm was shattered when one of the walls suddenly exploded.
Thanks to the automatic systems, there were no major damages, but that didn't stop the man from getting angry.
"Who dares?" he growled.
Kaito didn't respond. He simply appeared in front of him, knocked him out with a clean hit, and removed the Ultimatrix. Although the device fused with its user's wrist, it was easy to extract by vibrating it at the correct frequency.
Charmcaster raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't we at least say something?"
"It doesn't matter. He's a villain. Let's move to the next place," Kaito replied indifferently before leaving.
---
Galvan Prime.
Inside the main tower, Azmuth himself, considered the smartest being in five galaxies, worked surrounded by machines and assistants. His small hands moved with precision while he gave orders nonstop.
Despite the size of his invention making the scene look a bit funny, with the help of mechanical arms and assistants, his work looked incredibly smooth.
This time, Kaito decided to introduce himself properly. Unlike Albedo, Azmuth deserved respect. He requested permission to descend and was soon received in person by another Galvan who guided him as if they had been expecting him.
When the group entered, Kaito tried to speak, but Azmuth interrupted him without even looking.
"Silence, boy. I'm busy right now."
Kaito waited patiently, watching the Galvan handle complex tools. Twenty minutes later, Azmuth finished his work and looked at him lazily.
"Alright. You're less annoying than Tennyson. Here," he said, tossing him the artifact he had just finished building.
Kaito caught it midair and recognized it instantly, the Unitrix, the object he had come to find. He had trusted Azmuth would give it to him, since he and Professor Paradox were close. If Paradox supported him, Azmuth probably would too, especially given his pacifist nature. Even the original Omnitrix had been created as a tool for peace, a way to unite species across the universe without war.
"I modified it a bit," Azmuth explained. "Being the first one, it's also the core of the Omnitrix network. From it, you can observe the entire system. Paradox said you'd know what to do with it."
"Thank you very much," Kaito said with a slight bow.
'Having a time traveler on your side really helps,' he thought.
Azmuth waved him off. "Yes, yes, whatever. Go, I need to keep working."
Kaito smiled faintly, used to his attitude, and left for the next location.
---
Unlike the previous ones, the third target was hard to find. After two failed attempts, they finally located the right place.
It was Khyber's base, the hunter. The Plumbers had no record of its location. However, since in the episode where he appears Ben couldn't contact them because the base was hidden, that clue made its position quite important. And although it didn't reveal the exact coordinates, it helped. Kaito deduced the likely area from several hints, the most important one being that it was too close to a Plumber station.
They searched several suspicious areas. Twice they found camouflaged facilities, but they turned out to be simple hideouts for galactic smugglers.
After a while, they found a third suspicious zone, hidden by spatial camouflage, and fortunately, this time it was the right one.
Inside, there was an artificial environment mixing different biomes, some earthly, others completely alien.
As expected from the home of not just a hunter, but the hunter, the moment they stepped in, they were detected.
Although maybe the fact that they had entered by blowing a hole in the wall with a laser beam helped too.
A sharp whistle cut through the air, followed by the sound of a transformation. Before them appeared a beast resembling a saber-toothed tiger, with reddish fur and a dark mane.
The creature roared fiercely, but Kaito didn't flinch. Instead of attacking, he released a fraction of his aura.
The beast, which moments earlier looked unstoppable, whimpered and stepped back like a frightened dog.
After all, unlike other Omnitrix users, the Nemetrix required a certain compatibility and was dangerous in sentient beings, so it was usually worn by a non-sentient host driven only by basic instinct.
While the creature cowered, a spear shot out from Kaito's blind spot. If not for his senses, it might have hit him.
After dodging it easily, Kaito traced its origin and found his attacker thanks to his skill Mal, going straight for him.
Khyber was waiting, hidden in the shadows. The ground under his feet had a non-slip texture.
It was a trap prepared for someone who moved at high speed, maybe assuming Kaito ran like a Kineceleran. But his movement style was completely different, so the trap failed.
He grabbed Khyber by the neck and dragged him toward his beast.
"Who are you?" Khyber managed to ask with a hoarse voice.
Kaito didn't answer. Unlike others, Khyber was a hunter who slaughtered races across the universe just to collect their corpses as trophies. To someone who treated life like a game for his amusement, Kaito chose to end it.
Then he turned his attention to the creature, which looked at him with fear and sadness.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," he said softly, kneeling to pet its head.
The beast quickly calmed down, lowering its guard. Kaito made the Nemetrix vibrate, detached it carefully, and the creature reverted to its original form, a dog-like being made of dark stone that wagged its tongue and breathed happily, relieved that Kaito wouldn't harm it.
"System, can I take him with me?"
[Negative. The backpack does not allow the storage of living beings.]
Kaito sighed in disappointment.
"Alright, come on, boy," he said, and the dog followed him happily, never looking back at its former master.
Back on the ship, they headed toward Earth.
"Earth?" Charmcaster asked curiously. "Why not take the one there first?"
Kaito, still petting the dog, replied calmly. "The next one isn't in a fixed place. In the meantime, we'll give this little guy a new home."
As he spoke, he took out the Unitrix and handed it to Lala.
"You said earlier you could hack anything, right? Can you do it with a techno-organic being capable of evolving and assimilating technology?"
"Of course," Lala nodded with a confident smile, as if it were a routine task.
"Good, take this. You should be able to access the Omnitrix network. With all of them here, it shouldn't be too big. There's a guy who likes to hide there."
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)