Chapter 232: Highbreed: Am I a Hybrid?
However, it was brutally clear that every single Highbreed warrior present had severely underestimated the apocalyptic destructive power of Upchuck.
Despite the Gourmand's monstrously scaled-up, massive body, its movements were far from sluggish. Swallowing entire reinforced buildings was a mere open-and-shut case for the creature. The energy conversion churning within its cavernous abdomen was instantaneous. With another unhinging of its jaws, Upchuck unleashed a terrifying, hyper-compressed sphere of glowing green plasma capable of vaporizing over a dozen heavily armored warships in a single blast.
Just like a standard Gourmand, this colossal Upchuck could swallow matter several times larger than its own physical volume. It casually devoured entire city blocks of Highbreed architecture, chewing them up before spitting out even more devastating energy projectiles that tore through the atmosphere.
It was only after the slaughter had dragged on to this point that the Highbreed armada finally accepted the grim reality. The terrifying legends of Klein casually wiping out entire planets and annihilating fleets were not exaggerated rumors.
They were all entirely true.
Across the ruined battlefield, after nearly half of the Highbreed fleet had been reduced to floating slag, Diamondhead finally delivered a crushing crystalline uppercut, defeating the Highbreed Commander.
At that exact moment, Professor Paradox casually stepped out of thin air, his pocket watch ticking softly amidst the chaos.
A brilliant green flash illuminated the debris as Ben transformed back to his human form. He immediately turned to the time-traveler, panting slightly. "Paradox, I need you to get me to Ship."
Knowing exactly what the young hero intended to do, Paradox offered a polite smile and waved his hand, opening a swirling blue portal that transported Ben directly into the Galvanic Mechamorph's interior.
Ship, having fully merged with a spacecraft, looked completely identical to a standard interstellar cruiser, save for the glowing green circuitry pulsing along its sleek black hull.
Ben quickly marched to the pilot's seat, dropped into the chair, and strapped on his harness. He gripped the control yoke in front of him, a grin breaking across his face. "I've been waiting a long time to take this thing for a spin."
But what he completely failed to notice was that when Paradox teleported him, Azmuth had hitched a ride.
For the famously reclusive Azmuth to temporarily leave Zenith's side, one could only assume it was a proof of his deep, albeit hidden, affection for his greatest creation.
As the tiny Galvan hopped into the co-pilot's seat and strapped himself in, Ben finally jumped in surprise. "Azmuth?"
The First Thinker crossed his arms, his tone dripping with characteristic tsundere defensiveness. "You didn't honestly think I would let my Omnitrix fly headfirst into mortal danger completely unsupervised, did you?" He huffed, adjusting his posture. "Besides, considering the circumstances, I think it is highly preferable if I do the driving."
Regarding Ben's reckless piloting skills, Azmuth's skepticism was practically radiating off him.
"Alright, alright, let's skip the lecture," Ben waved him off, his hand hovering over his wrist. "We need to move fast."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ben slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix dial.
A blinding emerald flash filled the cockpit, and in Ben's place sat the towering, crab-like form of Brainstorm. Given his severe lack of deep-space navigation experience, Ben figured it was infinitely safer to rely on an alien hero with hyper-advanced intellect.
However, transforming into the Cerebrocrustacean immediately amplified Ben's ego to insufferable levels. Brainstorm clicked his massive claws, his voice echoing with arrogant sophistication. "Ah, the sheer brilliance of my hyper-genius cranium is truly a marvel to behold." He turned his eyestalks toward the tiny Galvan, openly mocking him. "Though I suppose it is a heavy burden, knowing my intellect vastly eclipses your own, Azmuth."
This blatant disrespect caused Azmuth's eyes to narrow dangerously. "So, you genuinely believe you are smarter than me simply because your oversized head takes up half the cockpit?"
"Negative," Brainstorm retorted smoothly, his brain pulsing with electrical currents beneath his open shell. "I know I am smarter than you because my raw cerebral capacity is demonstrably superior in every conceivable metric."
Brainstorm continued to bicker endlessly with the irritated Galvan, his claws dancing across the control console with blinding speed as he piloted Ship directly into the spatial jump point.
They dropped out of hyperspace, arriving in the upper atmosphere of Augstaka, the Highbreed homeworld.
The planet below looked like a desolate wasteland. Scanning the surface, one could hardly spot a single blade of grass or drop of water. It was a barren, dying rock.
Inside the cockpit, a green flash signaled Brainstorm reverting back to Ben.
During his brutal brawl with the Highbreed Commander earlier, Ben had learned a crucial piece of intel. The field commanders had absolutely no authority to withdraw their troops. Only the Supreme Council, located at the Highbreed homeworld headquarters, held the power to call off the invasion.
So, Ben had come straight to the source.
Finding the Supreme Headquarters was hardly a challenge. It was the single tallest, most imposing tower on the entire planet. Much like the ruins of Los Soledad, it seemed the Highbreed possessed an obsessive need to construct towering monoliths to project their supposed superiority and status.
Ben initially planned to pilot Ship right through the front doors of the headquarters, but he was swiftly intercepted by a massive planetary defense grid and subsequently captured by a swarm of Highbreed royal guards.
For the Highbreed, capturing Ben Tennyson was a massive stroke of luck. With their frontline armada currently being chewed to pieces by Klein, using Ben as a high-value hostage to negotiate a ceasefire seemed like their only viable strategy.
Thus, Ben and Azmuth were immediately dragged into the heart of the citadel.
Inside the grand chamber of the Supreme Council, Ben's wrists and ankles were bound by heavy, energy-dampening shackles. Because Azmuth was far too small for standard restraints, the guards had simply clamped a single heavy ring around his entire torso, leaving him dangling awkwardly.
"Man, if I could just reach the Omnitrix..." Ben muttered, staring down at his left wrist with deep frustration, straining against the heavy metal cuffs.
Azmuth rolled his eyes so hard it physically hurt. "Are you completely brain-dead, boy? Do you honestly believe the Omnitrix still requires manual physical compression to activate?"
Hearing Azmuth's biting reminder, Ben's eyes widened in sudden realization.
Oh, right! The Master Control function had already been fully unlocked. It was completely voice-activated now.
"Omnitrix, transform into Humungousaur!"
A brilliant green flash erupted in the throne room. The towering Vaxasaurian flexed his massive, dinosaur-like muscles, instantly shattering the heavy energy shackles like cheap plastic. With a casual flick of his massive claws, Humungousaur snapped Azmuth's restraint, catching the tiny Galvan before he hit the floor.
Once free, the two immediately charged toward the inner sanctum where the Supreme Council awaited.
Because they had been escorted directly into the heart of the headquarters, they bypassed the thousands of heavily armed guards stationed outside. It was a massive tactical blunder on the Highbreed's part, and a blessing in disguise for Ben.
Smashing through the few elite guards who hadn't reacted in time, Ben and Azmuth finally breached the main chamber, coming face-to-face with the Supreme Council.
They were essentially just larger, older, and significantly fatter Highbreed.
Upon seeing them, Ben immediately dropped his combat stance and stated his purpose, desperately urging the Council to withdraw their invasion forces and end the senseless slaughter.
However, the Highbreed Supreme Commander refused without a second of hesitation.
"But if you keep this war going, my cousin is going to slaughter every last one of you!" Ben shouted, genuinely baffled. He was actually trying to save their species from Klein's wrath.
The Supreme Commander merely sneered, his red eyes burning with fanatical zeal. "Even if our entire race is extinguished, we will drag as many of your filthy, lower lifeforms down into the abyss with us."
"Are you all completely insane?!" Ben yelled, running a hand down his face in pure exasperation.
Fortunately, Azmuth stepped forward, his tiny voice cutting through the tension with cold, scientific precision. "They have already gone mad, Ben. Their obsessive, long-term adherence to the concept of pure bloodlines led to centuries of severe inbreeding. This resulted in catastrophic genetic decay, completely destroying their immune systems, weakening their resistance to basic viruses, and ultimately stripping them of their reproductive abilities. You are looking at the very last generation of the Highbreed."
Faced with the ugly, obvious truth laid bare by the universe's smartest being, the Supreme Commander did not even attempt to refute it. "That is correct, Galvan. Since our glorious race is destined to perish, we shall cleanse this universe and take it down with us!"
While destroying the entire universe was a physical impossibility—given the sheer number of cosmic entities far stronger than them—wiping out countless weaker planets on their way to extinction was well within their capabilities.
Hearing the tragic truth, Ben's expression hardened. He changed his approach entirely.
'If I can't persuade you to stop... then I'll just have to fix you.'
"Omnitrix," Ben spoke clearly, raising his wrist. "Can you repair the genetic defects of the Highbreed species? And I mean all of them."
The Omnitrix's artificial intelligence chimed in a synthetic tone. [Repairing the genetic defects of the entire Highbreed species within the observable universe will consume nearly all of the Omnitrix's reserve energy.]
Receiving the confirmation, Ben didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second. "Do it."
A blinding wave of emerald energy erupted from the dial, pulsing outward at faster-than-light speeds, washing over the entire universe. In an instant, every single Highbreed in existence felt a surge of genetic recombination, as randomly selected alien DNA from the Codon Stream was permanently spliced into their decaying bodies, rewriting their destiny forever.
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