Chapter 56: Crimson Light
Hugo grimaced at the sound of the alarm.
'Of course. He would be here as well.'
The probability of the same individual appearing in both an awakened First Nightmare and their Second Nightmare was incredibly low, bordering on non-existent But never zero... And now, Hugo had once again found the being who had subjected him to unimaginable agony... In a sense, albedo was to be blamed for everything that has happened to him.
The Omnitrix's light had killed Albedo once, during the first nightmare but This time, Hugo wanted to do it with his own hands even if it wasn't the same albedo.
Without further thought, he clicked the buttons of the omnitrix causing to the dial to rise, Hugo begun scrolling rapidly through the unfamiliar holograms, for now He needed mobility, meaning an imprint that can fly.
Eventually he ended up selecting a sleek, winged silhouette and slammed the dial down.
A flash of green light consumed him as His body elongated, becoming leaner and taller then Four large, diaphanous wings of deep blue unfurled from his back. His chest narrowed, his arms lengthened into slender limbs ending in clawed hands, and at the same time his face morphed inhumanly losing his lips and causing his eyes to grown bigger.
When the light faded, he was a humanoid, moth-like alien. The four wings and two antennae-like wing folds could retract into a poncho-like hood, giving him a neat appearance. His body was primarily black with blue patching on his slender chest and along his limbs, bordered by thick black lines and lastly there was Cyan patches resembling ice chunks adorned his legs, arms and the back of each wing.
"Big Chill!" The name erupted from Hugo's mouth instinctively once again.
'Lame...' he thought, cringing at the name.
While the name felt juvenile at best, the power coursing through this form was nothing to scoff at.
His primary ability granted flight, which was already incredibly useful on it's own while The second granted an absolute control over cold and ice —in other words Cryokinesis— and lastly, The third was intangibility which was akin to another imprint of his, ghostfreak.
Furthermore, As an Ascended Terror of this species, his Tyrant ability would allow him to create minions from his body and his Terror ability granted control over temperature which was both similaire and different from the awakened ability.
He flexed his new hands, feeling the coldness of his body... Just like swampfire, this form was truly Worthy of the ascended rank.
Unfurling his four wings fully, Hugo rose into the air with a powerful beat.
'This form should do.'
"Ben wait! Albedo is too dangerous for you to take on alone!" Gwen's worried voice cut through the sirens called reaching Hugo.
"I can handle him" was all Hugo retorted before he pushed himself forward flying into the Plumber's head courters tower.
Frankly, charging off alone was a terriblel decision But there was a personal score he needed to settle with that insidious Galvan...
Besides, how threatening could one Galvan be?
Activating his intangibility, he phased effortlessly through walls and security barriers, his form turning translucent.
The inside of the tower was one massive prison block, appearing as a nearly endless circular chasm, its walls studded with hundreds of secure cells containing a bewildering array of beings.
It was also a near-perfect copy of the detention levels hugo had seen in Primus's reflection leading Hugo to wonder if the survivors of Beast God realm had taken the tower when they fled their dying world.
That aside, everything seemed to be in order...
Until it wasn't.
Something suddenly slammed into hugo from the side with the force of a truck.
The impact was so sudden and so brutal that Hugo didn't even have time to reactivate his intangibility.
He was thrown across the chasm, his wings flailing desperately as he was smashed into a reinforced viewport with a sickening crunch. Before he could even register the pain, a storm of punches rained down on him clearly indicating the attacker's hostility...
Gritting his teeths, Hugo twisted in mid-air using his four wings to create a vortex of wind to dislodge his attacker off him, Simultaneously, he poured soul essence into Big Chill's Awakened ability and opened his mouth to unleash a miniature storm from his mouth directly at the mysterious attacker.
A torrent of ice exploded through the large chasm, freezing Multiple cells which surprised Hugo for a moment.
He had forgotten that he was an ascended terror at the moment.
The onslaught finally made the attacker stagger back, raising their limbs to shield itself. Seizing the opening, Hugo planted his feet against the viewport and kicked off, putting distance between them.
Stabilizing his flight, Hugo got his first good look at his assailant.
His blood—or whatever circulated in this form—ran cold. (Pun intended)
The being hovering opposite him was melting the ice from its own form casually , barely affected by it.
It was, for all intents and purposes, an exact twin of his Big Chill form. Same black and blue coloration, same wings and the same slender body.
But there was one big difference between Hugo's and the mysterious attacker... Its eyes glowed with a malevolent crimson light And most chilling of all, emblazoned on its chest was a blood-red hourglass identical to Hugo's Omnitrix.
Hugo now possessed considerable knowledge about Nobel creatures and knew that another individual wielding an Omnitrix—a red one at that—was highly unusual...
"You…" Hugo's voice was slightly rasp "Just who are you?"
The crimson-eyed twin remained silent, its head tilting slightly as if in deep contemplation.
Then, without warning, it opened it's mouth and exhaled releasing a terrifying wave of ice that closed the space between them in seconds.
Hugo tried to dodge, manouvring his flight in the open space and when that failed, he activated his intangibility hoping the impact would pass through him but the attack seemed to break all logic, following and hitting him despite the fact that he was intangible.
It struck his chest and instead of just freezing him, it pinned him to the wall behind him in a thick mass of ice leaving now room for escape.
What was even worse was the fact that he felt the cold seeping deeper than his flesh, reaching toward his very soul and threatening to freeze his omni-cores solid.
'Is he a Titan?!' Hugo thought in panick, It would explain the vast gap in power between them despite their similar form and rank.
After all, A Titan's abilities, no matter what rank, defy normal logic.
Hugo struggled, pouring the entirety of his ascended strength into breaking the ice...
It didn't even crack, The ice, despite being created from a creature only one class above him refused to budge and he couldn't even break it through his strength.
The same thing could be said about The walls of the Plumber headquarters which were designed to hold beings far beyond an Ascended Terror...
Before he could try to anything else, the crimson twin flew forward stopping mere inches away from Hugo's pinned form.
Those hellish red eyes locked onto his and Hugo was momentarily lost in them.
They held a bottomless amount of rage and yet, beneath it all, a terrifying calm.
The figure said nothing, then It simply reached out a clawed hand toward Hugo's chest, toward the omnitrix.
Hugo grunted violently, mentally commanding the Omnitrix to transform him into any other formBut it was useless.
His Awakened ability to change between his forms required physical interaction with the dial and his arms were currently trapped.
As the red-eyed's fingers brushed the green symbol, the Omnitrix on Hugo's chest reacted violently. It flared with an emerald light trying to repel the intruder and Yet, bizarrely, Hugo also felt a faint, almost imperceptible pulse of… recognition...
As if the device was greeting an old friend.
Hugo was more then bewildered by this fact, could the Omnitrix even feel? And if yes then why would it fail something like that from this person?
Then, the attacker spoke for the first time, his voice a dry and rasp which was identical to Hugo's bigchill voice.
"Omnitrix, Initiate Decoupling Protocol Authorization Code: 6983."
Hugo's eyes widened in horror as The Omnitrix on his chest ignited with an even more intense light. He felt a terrible stretching sensation deep within his soul... The crimson-wielder wasn't just attacking him, instead he was pulling the Omnitrix's connection to his soul apart, trying to rip his Aspect from his very being...
'No No no! this can't be happening!'
Panic ran through Hugo's mind as he felt the unimaginable pain tear through his soul...
And yet at the same time, a thought suddenly found it's way into his mind...
If this impostor could command the Omnitrix with a code… who was to say the primary user couldn't?
With every ounce of his will, Hugo focused on the device bonded to his soul.
"Omnitrix! Cancel Decoupling Protocol! Override Authorization: 6983!"
Frankly, Hugo had no idea what he was saying nor did he know what authorization codes were bit it was worth trying.
The green Omnitrix flashed again, this time with a different light, and at the sale time, The crimson light from the attacker's hand flickered and sputtered causing it's hand to he burnt away slightly.
The red-eyed twin's eyes widened in shock.
In that moment of surprise, Hugo managed to wrench one arm partially free from the ice...
Channeling his Cryokinesis, he turned his soul essence into ice and formed a long blade of ice extending from his freed claw.
Before the attacker could regain his focus, Hugo drove the ice blade forward with all his strength.
It struck true, plunging into one of the glowing crimson eyes.
A terrible shriek reverberated through the air as The red Big Chill reeled back violently, clutching its face in pain.
At that exact moment, the elevator shaft nearby exploded open as Gwen and Kevin shot out of it, standing on a platform of solid pink energy.
Gwen's hands moved gracefully, constructing a massive pink hammer and hurling it at the attacker.
Kevin, his arms having absorbed the dense metal of the elevator doors, launched himself like a missile, connecting with the impostor's torso and breaking a few bones.
The crimson twin was sent spinning across the chasm, crashing through a series of empty cells but It recovered with an alarming speed, hovering unsteadily.
At that moment, It had a perfect opening to retaliate with its own Cryokinesis or use it's intangibility to rip out Kevin's heart... But it didn't.
Instead, it turned its head and looked directly at Hugo one last time.
The expression on its frozen features was unreadable but Hugo could have sworn he saw something strange for a moment...
Then, it simply turned intangible and flew through the ceiling, escaping before Gwen could form constructs to stop it.
Gwen, levitating her platform over, looked down at Hugo who was still pinned to the wall...
Her expression was filled with disappointment.
"'I can handle him' he said."
"…"
Hugo had no reply... Her words confirmed the attacker was Albedo but nothing else made sense.
He didn't recall Albedo being a Necrofriggian nor possessing any Omnitrix, let alone a red one... But then again, his knowledge of this world was extremely flawed and patched together with half truths...
Of course he also couldn't ask directly or he'll seem suspicious, after all it seems that albedo was someone that ben, Gwen and Kevin had already delt with in the past...
"He caught me by surprise" Hugo finally muttered with a slightly embrassed voice. "Help me out of this."
Gwen sighed, forming a slender, ultra-hot blade of pink energy then With careful precision, she sliced through the ice column, weakening it enough for Hugo to shatter the rest and pull himself free.
Having failed to stop Albedo's escape, Hugo felt an incredible amount of frustration... Especially due to the fact that he lost terribly and nearly died...
"Now what?"
"Now" Gwen said, gesturing back to the elevator "we wait for Grandpa to deal with the corrupted Titan and Then the Saints can takeus back to the Waking World."
Hugo felt a bit stunned by how casual she was about this entire ordeal...
Not only has they just fought a war with a group of racist awakened knights, but they also had to flee from a corrupted Titan and just now, a dangerous prisoner posssesing the same power as ben teennsyon had escaped containment... yet she wasn't that panicked in the slightest...
'crazy, they're all crazy...'
Nonetheless, Hugo, Gwen and Kevin descended in the elevator.
The two Ascended warriors debriefed, discussing security failures and Albedo's strange behavior but Hugo's mind was elsewhere for a moment...
How did Albedo have an Omnitrix? And most importantly What was he even doing in this era?
His First Nightmare with Albedo had taken place in what he assumed was the ancient past of the dream realm —At least during eurys and azarax era— and that was a millennia ago even when using the warped timeline of Beast God's reality.
Had Albedo's realm not been invaded by Corruption?or Had he somehow survived corruption for hundreds of years?
The questions kept looping on themselves with no end... And he couldn't ask his two "companions" due to the fact that he could appere suspicious.
'There should be a computer or something containing information somewhere here, I should take a look later...'
"Ben, are you even listening?" Gwen's voice pulled him back from his thoughts.
Hugo snapped his head toward her, still unnerved by the fact that he was called with another person's name.
"Ah, sorry, I Dazed off for a moment. You know, getting the shit beaten out of you does that."
Gwen rolled her eyes. "I told you not to go alone... But Albedo can be dealt with later, For now, we should just wait for the saints to come back."
Hugo nodded, remembering to hit the Omnitrix symbol and revert in a flash of green light and just like that He was Ben Tennyson once again...
"You know," Kevin said, leaning against the wall of the elevator"can't you just unlock a Transcendant alien and teleport us around? It's getting old, relying on the Saints for everything."
Hugo glanced at him for a moment...
Indeed, possessing a Transcendant imprint would be a monumental advantage in every catagory... And that would certainly make clearing this nightmare Easter But fighting a Corrupted Devil in his soul to unlock one was a risk he wasn't ready for just yet...
Hugo shrugged, hoping it was a Ben-like gesture. "Well, just Transcend yourself then, Save you the trouble."
Kevin snarled. "You think I wouldn't if I could? Gwen and I have been holding out on challenging the third nightmare for a while now because we promised your sorry ass that we wouldn't go until you Ascend which you're taking forever to do because you're such an immense loser But hey, who am I to judge?"
"Kevin! Be nice " Gwen shot him a glare causing him to flinch.
Hugo wasn't really offended by such an insult after dealing with azarax for days but there was something else that had surprised him.
The conjured creatures in this Nightmare, crafted by the Spell, were planning to attempt a Third Nightmare?
How did that even function within the trial's framework? And Theoretically, as a real carrier of the nightmare Spell, could he attempt to find a Third Nightmare Seed here?
Not that he would, but it was an interesting thought to have...
Just then, the elevator reached its destination.
The last floor of the headquarters was a vast open area, colored green for some reason, and filled with numerous screens and computers.
Plumbers of various species were rushing about in panic , organizing documents and sending messages somewhere, clearly about the recent attacks of the forever knights and the fact A prisoner just broke out of containment right above their noses.
Just then, a person that resembled a more hunchbacked version of Ripjaws hurried over towards them.
"Ben, Gwen, Kevin! My deepest apologies for the security breach! We don't understand how he did it, One moment he was contained and in the next… he was gone! His cell was shielded against both Ectonurite and Necrofriggian intangibility powers and yet he somehow passed through it… I take full responsibility." His gills fluttered in distress as he bowed.
Gwen offered him a reassuring smile, patting his shoulder.
"Don't blame yourself too much, Magister Patelliday. If Omnitrix users were easy to contain, Ben would have been dead a long time ago and besides Albedo has never shown interest in harming anyone but Ben...so he'll likely just try to stabilize his own form."
Magister Patelliday seemed slightly comforted before scurrying back to his duties.
Gwen then directed a junior Plumber to escort "Ben" to a private quarters for rest, after all, Gwen and Kevin we're ascended who didn't need to rest much, but Hugo being an awakened still gets tired relatively quicky especially considering the recent events.
Hugo found himself in a small, utilitarian room that had a simple bed, a desk, a closet and a strange shower on the side.
He was exhausted but Hugo felt unsafe to sleep in such a place...
The Plumbers might already suspect him and await an opportunity to act while he slept...
Especially Gwen with her mysterious aspect that seemed to manipulate both matter and force while at the same, being capable of infulecning people. —He had seen it first hand during the battle against the forever knights— and so he was afraid some sort of mental tricks would be preformed on him, which includes but not limited to brainwashing or perhaps even reading his memory.
However, hugo was intrigued by this body... He had not been human for a long period of time by now and although this was not his true body, it was still the closest alternative.
Standing before a small mirror, hugo studied Ben Tennyson's features...
He had beautiful emerald eyes that matched perfectly with his omnitrix, and short brown hair that was messy in a purposeful way, while his build was lean and athletic but undeniably adolescent...
Hugo was around the same height he used to be in his human body, which was not much but at least he wasn't as short as sunny.
After a while, Hugo removed the green jacket which smelled terribly making him wonder if ben Tennyson ever knew the concept of "hygiene"...
Just then a bizarre curiosity struck him...
'I shouldn't... Right?'
It was frankly terribly disrespectful... And more than a little wrong morally but did it really matter? It's not like anyone was watching him.
With an exhale, Hugo unzipped his pants and looked down.
"…"
'Holy shit.'
He quickly zipped them back up, deciding to erase that image out of his mind and never think of it again.
After all, he had more pressing concerns.
Hugo focused inwardly, summoning his runes.
Name: Hugo
True Name: Paragon of Purity
Rank: Awakened
Omni-Cores: [6/7]
Class: Terror
Aspect: [Omnitrix]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Description: [You have bonded with the first divine relic created by mortal hands, transforming you into a being woven from the primordial blueprint of life itself. Created by the greatest of minds in pursuit of a perfection forbidden by the absolute law of reality, you carry the potential to become any creature. Your existence is a testament to adaptation and the boundless diversity of the world.]
Attributes: [Mutant], [Flame of Divinity], [Extraordinary Memory], [Anatomica], [Spirit Core], [Shadow-Rend], [Soul Bound]
Memories: [Proto-Tech Armor], [Conqueror's Wrath], [Polymorphic Crystal], [Black-Pearl Trident], [Emerald Spyglass], [Heart Compass], [Nothing], [Sunlight Rings], [Azmuth's Ship]… [Silver Tear], [Proto-TRUK], [Lucky Charm.]
, [Null-Void Containment Egg.], [Proto-Tool.], [Plumber's Badge.]
(Other Unnamed Memories)
Echoes: [Spirit Seed], [Zed]
Everything was as he remembered… until he scrolled further... Finding something That made him frown.
[Playlist 0#]: [Locked]
[Playlist 1#]: [Locked]
'What? Why are they locked?' A deep sense of dejection washed over him...
Losing access to his seventeen Awakened forms was a catastrophic disadvantage in this nightmare....
Yes, his Ascended forms were extremely powerful but had a strict time limit on them due to the fact that he was rising in rank, unlike his Awakened forms which could be sustained for hours if not for days if he avoided wasting soul essence.
'Omnitrix, why are Playlist 0 and Playlist 1 locked?' he thought, using a mental command in case anyone was listening to him.
[Master Control is not achieved.]
Hugo raised an eyebrow. 'What is Master Control? And what does it have to do with the locked playlists?'
[Master Control is the certification protocol that grants the user complete administrative access to all of the Omnitrix functions, including indefinite transformation duration. Basic operational mode cannot support three active playlists simultaneously and due to unknown reasons, Playlist 2# has been prioritized for this iteration.]
Hugo sighed deeply... Of course there was another problem with his aspect...
'And how do I achieve Master Control?'
The Omnitrix was silent for a moment before replaying:
[Complete the Omnitrix.]
'Yes, I deduced that but How do I complete it?'
[Information access denied.]
Hugo bit his lip, resisting the urge to slam his fist into the wall...
He exhaled slowly. 'Fine... No problem at all, Let's see what you've got, Ben Tennyson.'
He continued reading the runes, confirming His suspicion.
The active playlist was listed as Playlist 2# of his Aspect Legacy.
First Playlist: [Locked] [100%]
Second Playlist: [50%]
Third Playlist: [Locked]
Fourth Playlist: [Locked]
Fifth Playlist: [Locked]
Sixth Playlist: [Locked]
Seventh Playlist: [Locked]
[Playlist 2#]:
First imprint: [Methonosian] [codename: swampfire]
Second imprint: [Sonarosian] [codename: Echo Echo]
Third imprint: [Vaxasaurian] [codename: Humungousaur]
Fourth imprint: [Aerophibian] [codename: Jetray]
Fifth imprint: [Arachno-Chimp] [codename: Spidermonkey]
Sixth imprint: [Cerebrocrustacean] [codename: Brainstorm]
Seventh imprint: [Crystalsapien] [codename: Chromastone]
Eight imprint: [Polymorph] [Codename: Goop]
Ninth imprint: [Necrofriggian] [Codename: bigchill]
Tenth imprint: [Celestialsapien] [Codename: alien X]
Eleventh imprint: [Locked]
Twelfth imprint: [Locked]
Thirteenth imprint: [Locked]
Fourteenth imprint: [Locked]
Fifteenth imprint: [Locked]
Sixteenth imprint: [Locked]
Seventeenth imprint: [Locked]
Eighteenth imprint: [Locked]
Nineteenth imprint: [Locked]
Twentieth imprint: [Locked]
Hugo took an involuntary step back from the mirror, his jaw opening in shock.
The second playlist didn't just have twenty slots but It also contained something earth-shattering— literally— something that rewrote every assumption about the power he had...
'A Celestialsapien... A Divine imprint!'