Permanent Retirement Part 2
"Ooh, Vera, this is delicious! Eh, now what are these brown chunks in the mold?" Max asked after he started eating his share of the food Vera served all of us, which was surprisingly decent, even if it's texture was odd because of the jello.
"Pork chops! And, the white parts are cauliflower!" Vera smiled as she watched Nico practically inhale his second plate of food. Even if he wasn't willing to eat Max's cooking, he was willing to eat practically anything as long as it wasn't mush or filled with drug.
The same could be said for Lucy, but not for Penn and Gwen, who both looked hesitant to eat the gelatin based food. The two emerald eyed cousins seemed to already be wishing that Nico was the one who prepared the meal.
"So, Nico, what have you been doing this summer?" Vera asked the only guy in the room that wasn't her brother, and the only person that wasn't biologically a Tennyson.
"Cooking for everyone, relaxing, confessed my feelings to the girls, and I did try to train differently last night, though it didn't work out as planned." Nico didn't really try to hide anything, since Vera already knew about aliens because of her brother not wanting to keep it a secret from her after he told Nico and the others.
"Oh! You finally told them how you feel?" Vera said as if she already knew about Nico's love for the girls.
"I- wait... how did you know I loved them?" He wasn't the only one curious here, as even the girls and Max didn't know he was in love with them until just yesterday.
"Call it a woman's intuition. Now, what was this different training method you tried?" Ah, yes, just brush over that information like nothing and say it was your intuition.
"I tried absorbing Thermal energy, since if I can absorb DNA/Life energy and electricity, why not try a different type of energy to absorb?" He's honestly surprised that he didn't think of that until long after his reincarnation.
"Wait, how did it not work as planned?" Max was confused as to how this idea didn't work as intended, as it was a logical idea that an Osmosian should be able to absorb other forms of energy naturally.
"It turns out that my body's more adapt to handling colder temperatures, and absorbing Thermal energy caused my body to heat up, so it naturally hurt a bit." The second Nico said the word 'hurt' the sound of silverware hitting the table rang through the room.
"Oh... shit, Lucy... calm down." The sound came from Lucy, who already seemed to be scared and frustrated at the thought of Nico being hurt.
"Calm down..... CALM DOWN!?! YOU GOT YOURSELF HURT AND I WASN'T THERE TO HELP YOU!!! HOW CAN I BE CALM!?!?" Lucy yelled as she questioned Nico while looking like she was on the verge of tears.
Normally, Lucy wouldn't have acted this extremely if she heard Nico got hurt, but after he got blasted by the Omnitrix and was knocked unconscious, she had become more protective over him. It was even to the point that every time he cooked she would be nearby holding a first-aid kit in case he hurt himself.
"Lucy, just breath, I'm perfectly fine, no scars, no blood, no lasting pain, what I did was the equivalent of stubbing my toe..." Nico lied to her face as he cupped her cheeks and made her look him in the eyes, if he told her the truth that he could still feel a bit of the pain she would freak out even more.
Looking into her amethyst eyes he could see a whirl of emotions that looked like it would devour him if he let it. This sight brought a gentle smile to his face, as he interrupted this as her love being that deep for him, but really this was a certain type of crazy beginning to blossom before his very eyes. One that was all to similar to his own, someone willing to destroy everything and everyone for the one whom they loved.
Nico wasn't the only one who saw emotions whirling of the one in front of him, as Lucy saw the look in his eye that told of just how many lives he would destroy, how much pain he would be willing to go through, just to keep them all safe and happy.
Surprisingly, her seeing this didn't push her away, or make her scared of him, in fact it actually made her feel comfort at the thought of what he's willing to do for her and those he also loves.
"I-... just... please don't do something like that again without me, okay...?" She said while laying her head on his shoulder, she knew she couldn't stop him from training, but she at least wanted to be there to help him just in case.
"Okay, I won't, Lucy." Even if he said that he wouldn't, he still needed to do things without them knowing for a while, as it would be annoying and slower if they didn't let him do what he needed to on his own. Especially since there would have to be plenty of people he would need to absorb/kill to become one of the strongest in this omniverse.
While Lucy and Nico were having their moment, Gwen was looking around the house to try and distract herself as she did still somewhat care about Lucy and thought she needed comfort right now. This was when she noticed a certain stuffed bird on one of Vera's shelves.
"Aunt Vera, is that a stuffed Red Billed North America Chickadee?" The red head asked as she walked up to the shelf to get a closer look at the stuffed fowl.
Vera let out a small gasp when Gwen recognized the bird. "How perceptive, Gwen! And did you know the song of the Red Billed North America Chickadee is actually..."
"A call indicating alarm or excitement!" Vera and Gwen said at the same time before mimicking the call of the Chickadee they were excited about. This gave Penn an opportunity to dump her gelatin based meal onto Nico's plate, which he gladly took as he was still hungry.
"I am totally stuffed." The Omnitrix user said after getting rid of the meal she didn't like off her plate.
"Penn, would you like some candy?" Vera asked as she brought over a bowl filled with the so called 'candy' in it.
"Yes please!" Penn said, excited to have some candy after not having any since the trip started.
But, when she popped a piece of the 'candy' into her mouth she instantly spat it out as it was, by her definition, the farthest thing from candy that she could have possibly put in her mouth at the moment.
"Eww, coffee! Nico, this one's all you, man." Penn said to her adopted brother/crush who was a coffee addict since the first day he accidentally tried a cup of it.
Nico, hearing the word 'coffee' immediately looked over at the bowl of caffeine based candy that Penn didn't enjoy and quickly popped one into his mouth, eating it with a small smile on his face.
"I need to use the bathroom!" She said while quickly heading to the bathroom after handing the bowl of coffee candy to Nico.
'Hm? Should I stop her, or let her go about the story as intended?' Nico thought while popping another piece of candy from the bowl into his mouth. He could change it here again, like what he did with the Kraken, but Penn should have some fun on this trip too.
As he was thinking about this he suddenly felt something similar to kiss being placed on his cheek, followed by a soft, almost whisper like, giggle. The kiss didn't feel warm, instead it felt cold as ice, though it was still soft and gentle.
"What the?" He said to himself as he turned around trying to find the culprit that decided to kiss him on the cheek for some reason.
"Nico~..." Said a rather feminine whisper like voice, which he quickly looked towards, only to see the faint image of what he could tell was Penn's version of Ghost Freak.
Strangely enough, this form of hers was the most human looking out of all of them. If not for the black markings on her face, the Omnitrix logo on her chest, and the lack of legs, Nico would think that this was just a beautiful gray haired woman with green eyes. Well, that is if this form of Penn's didn't feel wrong to look at, or be near, for some reason.
"Zs'Skayr...." He said under his breath. Nico didn't know why, but seeing this form of Penn's only made him feel negative emotions, rather than the positive emotions that he's linked to Penn over the years.
"What...?" Penn said in a tone that told how much she didn't understand what Nico said at all, but her body reacted differently to that name, which was shown by her green eye widening in shock even if she didn't realize it.
"Nothing Penn, go have some fun." Nico said to her as he turned back to the bowl of coffee based candy that was still on the table. Penn was noticeably confused by what he said earlier, but she still went through the wall nonetheless to find something entertaining to do.
'So, even if that Ectonurite bastard can't control her body yet, they still seem to be somewhat conscious, at least to where their body can still react a bit to their true name.' Nico didn't like the Ectonurite that would try to take over Penn's body eventually, in fact, he planned to make the ghost-like alien suffer and break their mind before absorbing them entirely.
"And this one is a Valentiana! Can you hear the ocean?" Vera asked as she handed Gwen a seashell, which the red head promptly put to her ear.
Stuff like this went on, with Vera showing Gwen something that she collected over the years, while the red head curiously looked at them, all while Lucy was holding onto Nico's arm.
Eventually, Vera did find out about Penn leaving the house after Max tried to look for Penn, after what seemed like hours of her being in the bathroom and finding that she wasn't even in there. This noticeably saddened Vera, as she saw this as Penn saying she didn't want to be around her.
So, Vera decided to go to bed early, even for her, while the rest of them waited for Penn to come back. Max and Gwen were upset with Penn for leaving and making Vera sad, but Lucy and Nico were neutral for the most part. Lucy, because she was more focused on Nico smiling while eating coffee candy as she thought it was cute, while Nico was just happily eating the candy.
After an hour or two, and almost half the bowl of candy, Penn entered through the front door looking like she had just seen something that she couldn't possibly believe.
"Nico! Grandpa! Lucy! Gwen!" She said as she ran into the house, seeing Max and Gwen in the kitchen, and Nico and Lucy sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Shh, your Aunt Vera's in bed." Max said, still a little upset that his granddaughter made his sister sad by disappearing.
"Seriously? It's like only 6:30." Penn was confused by the early time that Vera decided to sleep at. After which she started to explain what she had just gone through after she left the house.
"Penn, you snuck out, Aunt Vera, was hurt." Just like Nico, Gwen also liked being around Vera, so she was more upset about this situation.
"I... Crap, okay. I'll make it up to her in the morning. But, we need to check out Marty's apartment, 'cause something weird is happening in this place." Penn said, not insulting her aunt like her original male counterpart.
"Well, maybe we should do some investigating? But, you should stay as yourself for now, in case you need to go alien. And, you better make it up to Vera, Penn." Max said while walking to the front door to head to Marty's place, Nico and Lucy close behind.
"You know, ever since you got that watch, you've been a magnet for the weird." Gwen said while heading out with the rest of them.
"Gwen, I'm half alien, Lucy's a full alien, and Grandpa Max was a space cop who had relationships with multiple alien women in his younger days. Our entire family is a magnet for weird stuff." At this point being a Tennyson, or having a connection to one, will just cause anyone's life to be a lot more strange on average.
"I- Okay, you do have a point there." Gwen had to admit that Nico was right about the state of their family being practically the embodiement of strange.
It was a short walk over to Vera's neighbor's home, as the houses were all short walks from each other. But, no lights were on, and the front door to the house seemed to be left open, as if someone was in a rush to leave.
"Hello, anyone home." Max said into the house as he opened the door. He then proceeded to tell the teenagers with him to stay quiet, as if he didn't just announce their presence to whatever could be in the house.
Walking into the house they could barely see a thing as all the lights were off, and they could hear the ticks and chime of grandfather clock that Marty owned, giving the building an eery feeling to it. They went deeper into the house trying to look for any signs of Marty, or whatever it was that may have taken him, when suddenly something quickly moved in front of Gwen, who decided to move ahead of the group.
But, this was revealed to only be a coat that swayed before her, after Max finally found the light switch for the room. "Well, nothing here seems out of wack." Max said, ignoring the fact that people don't normally leave the doors to their home open after making their house look as eery as possible.
"Except for what he rolled in his rug, that was right here." Penn said as she motioned to the spot that showed where a rug once was, seems Marty wasn't very keen on cleaning his floors regurlarly.
After that they went back to Vera's home, as there wasn't anything else to look at in Marty's place. Back in Vera's place it was almost night time, so they would have to put off investigating further until sunrise, as that would be the safest option.
"You four sleep well, I'll be in the guest room if you need me." Max said to the four teenagers in front of him.
"But, Grandpa..." Penn wanted to figure out what that strange creature was that she doubted was even from Earth.
"There's nothing more we can do tonight, I'm going for an early walk in the morning, but once I'm back we'll check things out again. Now get some rest." He said just before he left to the guest room to sleep for the night.
After a while they did go to sleep, Gwen and Lucy taking the couches, while Penn and Nico 'slept' on the floor. It wasn't like they could just go back to the Rust Bucket and sleep in there, as Max had the keys with him when he went to the guest room.
The reason why 'slept' was used is because one of the four wasn't actually asleep at all. Nico was only pretending to sleep, as he wanted to absorb the Limax's tonight, refusing to let them even get a chance to get his older family members.
Once he was sure that the girls were sound asleep, he slowly went out the front door to get the Limax that would be trying to take Vera in her sleep. The first thing he noticed was the cool breeze of the night air, which felt comforting for him, as it meant he would be even colder tonight making it less likely he would go insane from absorbing all the Limax's. Though, it also meant he would have to be careful about how much ice he made tonight.
"Let's get to hunting." Nico said as he grew out the wings that the mutant parrot once had from his back, and flew into the sky above almost like he had been doing it since he was born.
He circled around the house from the air, his new wings looking less like feathers and more like blades that would cut somone if they so much as grazed them. He truly looked like a bird of prey that was ready to devour the first catch that he could find tonight.
"This feels nice. Never thought I'd get to feel this free... ever! Hahaha! I've had the best time this life, even if some thing's were concerning at times. I wonder if my sister is getting to have this much fun? Or, if she's had to kill like me, to protect people she loves?" Nico asked himself as he watched the house, waiting for the Limax to show itself so he could take down his prey.
"I'll have to ask what her life has been like so far, maybe even visit whatever world she chose- Oh shit! There's the fucker!" He said to himself while smiling as he saw the Limax go across the lawn of Vera's house towards her bedroom window.
As he quickly swooped down to his target he turned his legs into that of the mutant parrot, which he also covered in some of his ice to make it harder for the Limax to escape his grasp.
The alien didn't even get a chance to scream before he flapped his wings as hard as he could, taking both of them high into the sky quickly. He flew over to where he remembered the entrance to the big ass hole that they put their ship in, while the Limax tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he produced a little more ice on it's body, causing it to scream in pain.
"Try that shit again, and I'll turn your ugly ass into a popsicle!!" Nico yelled at the Limax, while freezing a bit more of it's body to hammer in his point.
"WHAT ARE YOU?!? HUMANS SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO DO THIS!!!" The Limax yelled, confused as to how a human could fly or produce ice without any tech on them.
"You're right, a human can't do this..." He said quietly, before looking down at the Limax with a crazed smile that made it look like he was ready to kill anyone at a moments notice.
"But, I'm not human! I'm an Osmosian! And you chose to fuck with the wrong family!!" As he said that the look on the Limax's face could only be described as pure terror, many creatures knew about the secluded aliens that can and will devour the life force of other aliens if they were left with no choice, felt their family to be threatened, or had already gone insane.
In short, this alien just realized that they all fucked up by coming here, and were most likely going to die by this Osmosian's hands. So, it did the only thing it could think of in a situation where its life was on the line... beg.
"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!!!" It yelled as they got to the dumpster where the entrance to where their ship was hidden under. It didn't stop begging for its life as it saw Nico turn his arm into that of a Lenopan's and tossed the dumpster to the side revealing the hidden door.
Nico was already getting tired of listening to the alien's screams, so he turned his wings into Lenopan tentacles, used them to grab onto the Limax as he tore open the hidden door and jumped down into the tunnel that was made under the complex.
"If you keep yelling... I'm going to make your death last the rest of the summer..." He said while using his sludge arm to claw into the side of the tunnel to slow his fall.
Looking at Nico's face the Limax could tell that he was completely serious and would make good on his threat if he even uttered a single word more. So, it quickly shut up, but it couldn't help but shake in fear at its own possible death.
Walking through the tunnel system would have taken too long, so he turned his legs into that of XLR8's, covered his head in the speedster alien mask, and sped through the tunnels one path at a time. Though, he did make sure to wrap one of his tentacles like a cacoon around the Limax, so it would have less of a chance to escape him while he ran around 300 mph (482.8 km).
Eventually, he did manage to find the ship that was surrounded by the pods with elderly people in them, though, this didn't go without the Limax almost vomiting in his hold. Which he threatened it that if it even puked up a drop on him, he would kill it without a second thought.
"Now that we're here, I want you to do something for me, before I let you go..." Nico said as he walked towards the Limax ship that was in front of him.
"I want you to scream for your comrades... scream for them to come save your PATHETIC LIFE!!!" Using the Lenopan DNA he turned his face into what could only be described as the pure hatred of an eldritch horror as he yelled his command at the terrified Limax that was in his hold.
And almost as fast as a large dam suddenly opening up, the Limax screamed at the top of its lungs in a pitch that Nico could barely hear, but he could tell that it quickly spread through the cave system and to the surface.
It wasn't long before he could hear the other Limax's rush through the tunnels, and it also wasn't long before they arrived to the sight of one of their own in the sight of a creature that they immediately thought was a Lenopan, based on the tentacles and strange looking sludge face.
"You Sludgepuppy filth!! How dare you attack one of our superior kind!? Your kind are nothing but filth that deserve to go extinct!!!" One of them yelled at Nico, fully believing that they were dealing with a Lenopan right now.
"...hehehe... hahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Nico began to laugh like a maniac as he heard the disgusting looking Limax insult the species of one of the girls he loves so much he's willing to make a species go extinct if they just asked him.
"What are you laughing at you filth!?!" The Limax questioned while the one in his hold was trying to signal for it to shut up before they all die.
He threw the Limax that he had in his grasp over at the others, while his smile looked like that of a bloodthirsty killer who was about to cause a massacre. "Oh hoho~ You idiot.... If I wasn't going to kill all of you before... I'm definetly going to hunt down every last one of your species to extinction now!!!"
With those words Nico stomped his foot onto the ground and caused the entire are they were in to be covered in ice, even sealing the entrance, not caring about his limits at the moment at all. The only thing his ice didn't touch were the pods that still had people in them, he at least still had some sense to make sure these people were safe.
"You just signed our race's death warrant.... we're all going to die...." The Limax he previously held said as it laid on the ground waiting for it's imminent death.
"How did you make this ice!? How can a pathetic Sludgepuppy do this!?!?" The same Limax from before yelled in confusion, not realizing that it was making its situation far worse than it could possibly have been before.
"I'll give you a little bit of advice for your next life.... As I feel a little generous right now...." Nico said before suddenly using XLR8 speed to appear behind the Limax, with his arm raised, ready for the kill.
"Don't insult the species of someone I care about more than your insignificant existence...." With those final words he turned his hand into that of the mutant parrots talons covered in ice, and stabbed them into the brain of the alien, before he started to absorb everything that made the creature what it was.
The other three Limax's watched as their comrade began to turn into dust right before their eyes, the last thing they heard from their fellow Limax was his cries of pain as he was slowly absorbed by the Osmosian that they had insulted by existing today.
"One down, three more to go...." He said before looking to the two Limax's who had been quiet since they all arrived. Before they could even try to escape or attack him, with the same blinding speed, he rushed in front of them and stabbed his frosted talons into them both.
The final one, who was still laying on the ground, watched as the last of its comrades turned into dust and heard their screams for help, which it couldn't provide, even if it tried.
"And that's almost all of you.... you're the last of crew here...." Nico said while shaking off some of the dust from the Limax's friends corpses, and slowly turned to the scared alien behind him.
"W-w-why did you leave me last...?" The creature said as he slowly walked towards it, each step sounding like the sharpening of a blade that was ready to slice it to bits.
"Because... since you've been such a good alien for me.... I decided to let you watch them die, so you could be thankful..." He said as he took the final step to be right in front of the Limax and grabbed its neck, lifting it into the air.
"T-thankful f-for what...?" The Limax said, trying its best not to somehow piss off the Osmosian even more than it already had.
"For... how quick you are going to die... by my hands..." With those final words from Nico he stabbed his talons into the Limax.
Unlike the other three it didn't get a chance to scream as it was absorbed almost instantly, its entire body becoming dust in his hands. After the T-Rex, Nico realized that he could change the rate of complete absorption to be as fast, or as slow, as he wanted it to be. Allowing for a quick and painless death, or a slow agonizing death that would make it feel like they were being slowly torn apart from the inside out.
"My first fully sentient kills.... it feels.... oddly.... cathartic..." He couldn't feel much of his body right now, as he went a bit past his limits, making a lot of his upper body numb.
"Now... let's get all of you back home, so I can finally get some sleep...." With that he thawed the ice he made early, and with the speed of XLR8 he began to take each of the senior citizens to their houses.
But, before he grabbed the last one, he made sure to grab his messanger bag and stuff the spaceship the Limax's used into the bag. The second he got the chance he would probably use it to explore space, or maybe repurpose the parts for something new.
By the time he got the last person to their home and got the ship in his bag, the sun was already beginning to rise. He had spent the entire night down there killing the Limax's and getting everyone back to their homes.
"I don't care what anyone says.... I'm sleeping in today...." He said as he walked back into Vera's house, and promptly went to the makeshift bed he was supposed to sleep in last night. He fell asleep almost instantly, but before he fell unconcious, he could hear Max get up and head out for a walk. But, this time he wouldn't get snatched by a Limax, as all of the ones that were here were now all dead, nothing more than dust at the bottom of some random cave.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone