Hunted Part 2

After around half an hour on the road the engine of the Rust Bucket started to make a strange sound, causing Max to quickly stop the vehicle and head off-road to check what was wrong with the RV.

"Huh? Looks like nobody's home." Penn referred to the area that they had stopped at which seemed to be an abandoned town.

"Not for a while. My IntelliMap program says this is Slaterville. Incorporated in 1857 after the discovery of silver, went bust in the late 50s when the mine ran out." Gwen explained the reason for the town being so desolate and barren of any life, other than some tumbleweeds, and lizards that were probably in the shade of a run-down building.

"I wonder if any of their equipment is still here?" Nico said, wanting to possibly use some of the equipment on future projects, especially if any dynamite was still lying around.

"Aha! I think I found the problem." Max said as he held up a dripping tube with a crystal shard going through it. "Leaky fuel line."

"Uh... lucky shot?" Penn sheepishly smiled, not expecting that one of her accidental shots from before would go through the Rust bucket and to the engine.

"Damn right it is! The other shards didn't even go all the way through the walls, but that one went straight to the engine without making an obvious hole, and only went through the fuel line! We're lucky it didn't seriously damage the engine." Nico said while looking at the side of the RV and not seeing a single hole that would have led to the engine whatsoever.

"Nico's right, with only the fuel line punctured I should be able to patch it up in a few minutes." Max had to admit that they were lucky to not have a completely wrecked engine.

"Sorry, Grandpa. Let me help. Juryrigg could get this fixed in just a few seconds." Penn started to cycle through the Omnitrix to select the imp-like alien, but Nico grabbed her hand before she could make her selection.

"Penn, maybe we should just let Grandpa fix it, 'cause I don't think he'll be comfortable with Juryrigg messing with the Rust Bucket." Nico didn't just say this because he wanted to give the bounty hunters time to catch up, but also because he knew about all the tech Max had attached to the vehicle.

Even if Max already told them about his past as a Plumber, the man probably wouldn't want them to know he has an entire arsenal in/attached to the RV that they have been sleeping in for the last couple of days.

"Yeah, Nico's right again, if anyone's gonna work on my Rust Bucket, it'll be me." Max had never really felt that comfortable about someone else doing maintenance on his weapons, or his vehicle, so he genuinely did prefer to do it himself.

"Oh, okay. I guess we'll check this place out then." Penn quickly started to drag Nico into the abandoned town, as the Osmosian was still holding onto her hand, though due to the sudden dragging Nico's bag almost fell off his shoulder, which would have been bad if he didn't tighten his grip on the strap of it.

"Hey! Don't think you'll leave us behind!" Gwen said as her and Lucy ran to catch up to them. They were exactly comfortable with Penn being alone with Nico as none of them have agreed to share him yet, and they didn't want to risk Penn getting ahead of them.

As the four teenagers strolled through the ghost town they eventually came upon a warehouse that mostly had scrap metal and rusted tools. Which Nico grabbed a couple to inspect them to see if any of it could be used for any of his project ideas.

"Dang, talk about old school. Look at all this junk!" Penn said as she kicked a nearby rusted wrench to the opposite wall of the warehouse.

"You see junk, I see possibilities." Nico said as he managed to find a couple of mining drill heads and crusher pieces. If he could figure out how to integrate them into his Upgrade form he could potentially make them stronger and use them for crafting some improved tech.

"What can you use that stuff for, Nico?" Lucy questioned as she watched him start to stuff the parts and scrap metal into his messenger bag to use later on.

"Well, I do want to try making my own car at some point, and anything I can get my hands on to do it helps." He wasn't even completely lying at the moment, as he did want to try making a car like Kevin did. Though, he would try make his even better than what Kevin could make, even if it would take a while for him to get his hands on the Tetramand engine block.

"Could this thing help?" Penn asked as she pointed to a much larger mining drill head that was buried in dirt. It was most likely left there after the miners abandoned this place and over time it started to get covered by dirt that was blown in by the desert winds.

"Ooh! That is a biggin, and yes, Penn, that could help out. If not for mining possible materials that I could use, then I could recycle the metal to make a decently durable frame." In reality, he would most likely attach it to the ship to try mining valuable metals from other planets as soon as he got the chance to travel the galaxy.

After Nico said that the drill head could help him with his goal to make his own car Penn activated the Omnitrix and started to cycle through the roster. She then quickly pressed down the dial selecting Wildmutt for this.

'I... I'm going to have a serious talk with Azmuth when I meet him, CAUSE WHAT THE FUCK!?!' The Osmosian demigod thought as he stared blankly at the form that Penn chose.

Even though Penn's Ghostfreak could be considered the most human looking, but still obviously an alien, her Wildmutt form genuinely made it look more like a human woman who was trying to cosplay a Vulpimancer. Her outfit was more akin to a swimsuit than actual clothes, showing off plenty of her skin, and her hair was wild and long, covering the area where her eyes would be. If not for her arms and legs that looked similar to Wildmutt's you would just think that it was a human going to the pool on a hot summer day.

Before Nico could comment on her appearance, Penn already started to dig up the drill head. Her digging caused plenty of the dirt and sand to be spread around the warehouse, some of which almost hit the three who were watching Penn dig.

Though, as she continued to dig it seemed like one of the bounty hunters as the ground began to shake, suggesting that something reasonably big was drilling though the soil beneath them.

And just like that the bounty hunter, by the name Kraab, emerged from the ground, which was obviously noticed by the teenagers present. Lucy and Gwen were more cautious and worried about the presence of the sudden appearance of the creature, while Nico was doing all he could to keep his excitement hidden.

"Hand over the Omnitrix and I promise you won't suffer... much." Kraab said to Penn, who had finally noticed his presence and stopped digging, while he walked towards her in a way that was intended to be menacing.

Though, even if Penn's current appearance was more akin to a human, she still wasn't able to properly communicate in this form, so Nico decided to speak in her place.

"I assume you're talking about the watch, and to that I have to say, fuck off you crustacean abomination piece of shit you ain't getting jack squat." The Osmosian said as he stepped in front of the alien bounty hunter, while still trying to keep his excitement hidden as he looked at all the tech that made up the majority of Kraab's body.

"I don't think a pathetic human has any say in the matter." The bounty hunter said, believing that Nico was only a human based on his appearance, while he opened his large claw to prepare to shoot an electric blast at the teenager.

"Who said I was a human?" Nico said before he stomped his foot on the ground and made ice spread from where his foot impacted to cover all but the head of Kraab.

"What is this?! Where did all this ice come from?!?" Kraab questioned while he tried to break free of his frozen prison.

"So annoying, just shut up while I steal your body. Oh! And Tetrax, stop being a creep and come out." Our resident demigod said as he stepped in front of the bounty hunter and placed his hand on the 'neck' of the crustacean like alien.

The Petrosapien bounty hunter came out of the shadows on his hoverboard, while Nico turned part of his hand into Upgrade and started to work past the security measures in Kraab's body. While the girls were confused about what was going on, Tetrax took off his helmet to reveal his cautious face because he didn't expect to be found by what he originally thought was a regular human youth.

"What are you?..." Tetrax said, wanting to know what exactly the creature was before him that obviously wasn't a regular human and was a potential threat in his eyes.

"Isn't it obvious, I'm an Osmosian, and this guy intended to harm someone I love. Will you make the same mistake?" Nico was prepared to kill the Petrosapien if this version did actually intend to harm Penn to retrieve the Omnitrix.

"What? Why is an Osmosian on this planet? Shouldn't you be on Osmos V?" Tetrax thinking that Nico was a pure Osmosian thought that he came from the home world of the species, instead of being born on Earth.

"I've never been there, I was born on Earth, now answer my question. Will you make the same mistake as this being?" Nico said as he finally got done with the security of Kraab's body and made the alien's head pop off his body. Originally that feature was intended as a safety measure in case something caught Kraab's body and wanted to kill him, but now it was the instrument for the loss of his own body.

"You were born on- never mind. My mission is only to retrieve the Omnitrix, I would only need to temporally take your lover with me for its removal, no harm will come to her, you have my word." Tetrax said while he watched the Osmosian toss Kraab's head to the side, seems he thought Nico and Penn were lovers based on Nico's actions.

"I- umm... first off, we aren't lovers... yet." Both Nico and Penn blushed at the misunderstanding, though Nico was not going to back down at the thought of them being together as he still wanted to be with all the girls here. "But, I can't let you do that, even if you gave me your word, I still refuse to leave Penn in any situation."

Tetrax let out a sigh at Nico's words, as he did want to complete his mission, but he also didn't want to make an enemy out of a member of one of the most threatening species in the galaxy. "While I do acknowledge you as a warrior, as you have proven so by taking victory swiftly and effortlessly against an experienced bounty hunter, I still do not wish to leave the Omnitrix with someone who has barely scratched the surface of its potential."

While Nico was placing the body of Kraab into his messenger bag to expirement with later, he decided to make a suggestion for a compromise. "How about we make a deal then, one where you wouldn't need to worry about Penn having the Omnitrix?"

"What do you suggest?" Tetrax crossed his arms, curious about what kind of deal Nico would propose that would make him not want to take the Omnitrix to hide it from Vilgax.

"In about a week, or more, Vilgax will be fully healed, and he will try to come down to Earth to retrieve the Omnitrix himself. At that point he will be stronger than you have ever seen, meaning you won't even be able to stop him if he fought you to take it." The demigod informed as he turned around facing Tetrax, his face completely serious.

"What? How do you know this?" Tetrax was confused about how this Osmosian could know this information on Vilgax's healing process, or about how the warlord would be stronger than his already terrifying state.

"Does that really matter?" Nico said with a raised eyebrow. "That isn't what matters here, what matters is what I'm going to say next, which is the actual deal that I am proposing here."

"And that is?"

"If you let Penn keep the Omnitrix for now, I'll kill Vilgax in a way that will ensure he can never be a threat to anyone ever again." Nico said, while he heard Max call for them, most likely already finished with repairing the fuel line of the Rust bucket.

"Are you insane?! Yes, I do acknowledge you as a warrior, but that doesn't mean I believe you could actually defeat Vilgax in a fight! He is a warlord that has been around for centuries, and you think you'd be able to best him in combat?!?" Of course Tetrax wouldn't be able to believe in Nico being able to kill the conqueror that had destroyed his home planet, as he only saw Nico's capabilities in a single fight.

The Osmosian let out a sigh as he had hoped this would have gone more smoothly. "Then what if we set up a challenge for me to prove myself to you?" Might as well give himself a chance to prove to the Petrosapien that he can kill Vilgax.

"A challenge? What kind of challenge could prove to me that you could kill one of the most feared warlords in the universe?" Tetrax couldn't even imagine what kind of challenge would allow him to believe that Nico could kill the alien conqueror.

"Five days, give me five days to get strong enough and then I will broadcast a Conqueror's Challenge to Vilgax for Earth, and for Vilgaxia, the planet Vilgax holds ownership of." Nico knew that Vilgax wouldn't be able to resist a Conqueror's Challenge, which would allow him to take ownership of another planet, that is, if Nico lost.

"Are you a psychopath!?! If you lose Vilgax will own Earth, your home planet!!" Tetrax didn't believe that the Osmosian before him would willigly take on the risk of his own home planet potentially getting take by the warlord.

"That's only if I lose, and in the tiny microscopic chance that I do lose, you can take the Omnitrix and I'll even give you the code to destroy it before the fight as an extra precaution if you want." Nico was confident that he would be able to kill Vilgax if he's just given a bit more time to be strong enough to subdue the warlord before absorbing him.

"You may have know things that you shouldn't have known before hand, but I doubt you know how to work the Omnitrix to make it self destruct!" Tetrax was accepting about Nico being able to know about everything else, but the codes to the Omnitrix are something that should only be known by its creator or his assistants.

"Would you like a demonstration then?" Nico said as he walked over to Penn who finally turned back to normal after the Omnitrix timed out.

"Nico, what's going on? And why are you talking to this guy who looks like a genderbend Diamondhead like you know him?" Penn asked, confused about the entire situation as she didn't know what was happening at all.

"Right, guess I'll have some explaining to do later, but right now I'm trying to make sure you don't get hurt." He said as he gently grabbed her arm and gave Penn a gentle smile. He did hope to not have to let the cat out of the bag so soon, but he didn't want to end up killing a potential ally, so making this deal was important.

Nico began to use a combination of Limax and Lenopan DNA on his vocal cords to make him sound exactly like the creator of the Omnitrix, Azmuth, for this demonstration, as from what he could recall only Azmuth's voice could properly unlock the Master Control without having to mess with the Omnitrix for hours at a time.

"Omnitrix Command Code 0005." Luckily it seems this was one thing that Azmuth didn't account for, as the Omnitrix responded to his command in kind by quickly recharging from its prior timed out state.

"Penn, think about turning into an alien now." Nico informed her, and the next second Penn had turned into Diamondhead, then Juryrigg, and finally Four Arms.

"I- How did you- Why do you- I-I'm speachless." Tetrax fully believed before that Nico was lying about knowing the command codes to the Omnitrix, but after seeing the young Osmosian actually unlock the Master Controls he couldn't refute that maybe Nico was much much more than meets the eye.

"Omnitrix Command Code 0006" Nico said in the Azmuth voice once again, causing the Omnitrix to time back out and lock away the Master Controls for another day.

"Aww! Come on Nico! I only got to have full control of the Omnitrix for like, a minute!" Penn was a bit upset at the fact that she couldn't have gotten to use the Master Control's for a longer period of time.

"Relax Penn, I'll unlock it again once you have enough experience with your aliens." Nico didn't want her to potentially become too reliant on her aliens, or stay as them all day, but he did understand that she should be allowed full control of the Omnitrix after she gets enough experience with it.

Nico was going to say to Tetrax, 'So is this enough proof?', but before he could they heard the sound of a jetpack closing in on their location, and then SixSix crashed through the warehouse roof with his blasters at the ready. The flying bounty hunter said something in his native language, which was most likely him saying to give up the Omnitrix, but to everyone, except the still conscious Kraab, it sounded more like gibberish than anything else.

"Either learn a language that a universal translator can actually pick up, or shut the fuck up SixSix." Nico said before turning his arms into that of a Lenopan and using them to grab onto the bounty hunter.

SixSix did try to fly away from Nico's reach, but Tetrax shot his blaster at the wall behind the bounty hunter, causing a small explosian which knocked SixSix directly into Nico's grasp. It was there that Nico used some of his stored energy to shock the every living shit out of the bounty hunter, knocking him out cold.

"Now, Tetrax, do we have a deal?" Nico said as he watched the alien pull out a blue energy cube and throw it towards the other two bounty hunters, the cube then grew, enveloped the two, and shrink back down to its original size.

The righteous bounty hunter let out a sigh before responding to Nico. "I accept your deal, young Osmosian, I will return in five days for when you issue the challenge." Tetrax had to admit that the teen was full of surprises, and with the showing of Nico actually knowing the Omnitrix command codes, he could only hope that he would surprise him again and become strong enough to kill Vilgax in less than a week.

"Good, see you then, my potential ally." Nico said to Tetrax as the Petrosapien pressed a button on his suit and was suddenly teleported away with the other two bounty hunters trapped in his device.

"Looks like I'll have to put my plans into overdrive." He said as he heard Max begin to call for them and run to the warehouse, seems the old Plumber heard that explosion from Tetrax's blaster.

"KIDS WHAT'S GOING ON?!?!" Max yelled out as he ran through the entrance to the warehouse with a look of concern and fear.

"Nico has something explaining to do, that's what." Gwen responded to Max, wanting to know just as much as the other's what just happened here, and how Nico knew that alien.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand Gwen, it's time for me to tell the whole truth." Nico said as he started walking to the Rust Bucket, looks like he'll have to spill what he knows today, even if he hoped that this day would come much later.