Great One

"Aww man! This guy sucks," Ben grumbled, clearly frustrated with his new form.

"Well, either way, you'll have to learn how to control it sooner or later. So how about you give it a test run," Max suggested.

"Finee," Ben sighed. Just then, a huge flaming meteorite came crashing down, narrowly missing them. The impact left them all stunned.

"Is everyone okay?" Fred asked, quickly putting up a mana shield to protect them.

"Y-yeah," Gwen responded, her voice shaky. "I gotta learn me some magic," she muttered, realizing how handy it was.

"You can always reach out to me if you want to learn," Fred offered, smiling. "I'll help you fix your inconsistent power level," he thought. "With me teaching you, you won't fear electric welders."

Gwen shrugged off his comment, used to Fred's sometimes nonsensical statements. "That meteor came out of nowhere," Max said, his eyes scanning the sky. "Maybe we should check it out."

Fred dispelled his mana shield, and Ben continued struggling to control his new alien form. "Wo-ah!" Ben exclaimed, suddenly turning into a ball. "How do I control this guyyyyy?" he cried as he started rolling away.

"Well, at least he's heading in the right direction," Gwen said as they followed.

"So, do you think this is another alien activity?" Gwen asked as they rushed to catch up. Max and Fred exchanged a glance, surprised by her question.

"Guess the plumber blood runs thick in you," Fred remarked.

"Oh come on, anyone after what we've been through would think the same," Gwen retorted, and they couldn't disagree.

"Anyway, with how big it is and the little force it had on impact, you're on the money," Max replied as they arrived. Ben had crashed into the object that had just landed. He finally unrolled himself and stood up.

"You guys are here," Ben said, reverting to his normal form. "Grandpa, what is this thing?" he asked, staring at a giant tick-like creature behind him.

"Rejoice, oh inhabitants of this backwater planet," a voice suddenly spoke from above. The four looked up to see a spaceship descending, with three aliens flying on hovering disk-like platforms.

"Wow, looks like someone brought me another great gift," Fred said, his eyes glimmering as he eyed the spaceship. The Tennyson gang gave him a look that said, "Seriously, dude?"

"Hey, others are into cars, and I'm into spaceships and all the sci-fi techy stuff. It's my thing, don't judge me," Fred defended himself.

"But you already have two..." Gwen started to say.

"There's no such thing as enough," Fred cut her off. They gave up on him and focused on the approaching aliens.

"Who are you, and what do you want with our planet?" Max demanded as the aliens drew near.

"There's no need to worry, Human. We come bearing good news," the tall alien said, hovering closer.

"Yeah, and..." Gwen replied, not buying their story.

"It seems this one has an attitude," another alien remarked, hovering nearer. "He kinda looks like Stinkfly but without the fly," Fred commented.

"An Arburian Pelarota," the tall alien said, looking at Ben. "You've traveled far."

"Is that what I am? I-I mean, I'm just enjoying my time traveling the galaxy, nothing much," Ben stammered.

"It's a shame. You missed the wonderful sight of seeing the great one purify your planet last week," the Stinkfly-looking alien said.

"What's this 'purify' you keep talking about?" Fred asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Shhh, silence," the third alien, a scrawny one, said as it rubbed the body of the giant tick alien. "He says... he says he'll purify your planet before the moon."

"Yeah, I didn't hear a thing," Gwen retorted.

"Someone as lowly as you wouldn't. Only I can speak his language," the scrawny alien retorted arrogantly.

"So, the purifying, what's with that?" Fred asked again. Shortly after, the ground suddenly turned pale, as if all of nature lost its color. The four looked around, concerned.

"This doesn't look good," Max said, his eyes darting around.

"On the contrary, you should be honored," the tall alien said, stepping forward. "You see, the great one travels from planet to planet," he explained, using a device on his head to project a holographic illustration. "He will embed himself into a planet, his appendages burrowing deep inside, reaching its core, sapping the very life out of it until he ingests it," he explained as the illustration ended with the planet being destroyed.

"So it's a giant alien tick," Fred concluded.

"How dare you!" the Stinkfly-looking alien retorted angrily.

"Whatever, we'll take you down and claim your ship as the prize!" Fred declared, full of enthusiasm.

"Yeah, what he said," Gwen added, though she sounded less convinced.

Ben curled up again, this time with better control, and spun towards the so-called great one. But the Stinkfly-looking alien blocked him with its weird axe-like weapon, sending him back with great force.

"That spaceship's mine," Fred said, creating a hexagonal barrier to stop Ben from going too far. Ben bounced off the barrier and rolled forward again, but mid-air, his watch started beeping. "Come on, not now," he groaned.

Fred realized what was happening and made a portal in front of Ben. Just as the Stinkfly-looking alien was about to strike Ben with a vertical slash, Ben entered the portal and reappeared next to Max and Gwen.

"It's fine, I wasn't going to sit back this time," Fred said, cracking his knuckles. He jumped high towards the great one, morphing into Way Big. The tall alien and the Stinkfly-looking one tried to shoot lasers at him, but he dodged them easily in the air. He landed behind them, his back facing the great one.

"Come on, we've gotta help too," Ben urged as he saw Gwen and Max just standing there.

"You heard him, didn't you?" Gwen said. "Right now, he has all the motivation he'd need to win this fight," she added, deadpan. At this point, she had lost all hope for Fred. Normally, he wasn't one to act all hero-like and rush to save the day. He'd rather help out Ben just to avoid stepping in himself. But this time, unlike when they faced Vilgax, he was motivated. He turned into this giant alien from the start. The more she thought about it, Fred wasn't like Ben who could turn into just a few aliens. He had access to many alien transformations and had shown that he knew a lot about them. If he wanted, he could solve many of their encounters easily, but he didn't, meaning he didn't want to. He said he wasn't into the hero stuff but wanted to be a plumber. Gwen's conclusion: Fred was just lazy. He had all the power but was lazy. Ben was goofy, and Fred was a lazy techy. Oh, the people she surrounded herself with.

"Okay," Ben said, drawing out the word. "If she says so," he thought as he tried to activate his watch again. "I should've asked Fred to teach me master control instead. Now I've just got those two new aliens," Ben muttered to himself.

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