He had taken it to hydroponics before he decided everything would work out. Freed from the biological confines of the ship with a large layer of dirt and like hell he was going to attempt transmutation there, Ed was gathering a pile of familiar and alien pieces of wood, dirt, rocks and avoiding the clusters of alien animals. One of them seemed to like him and had given him a lick, and it reminded him of Den whenever they had gotten to Amestris.

A lingering thought circled through Ed's mind. If proper alchemy drew power from the movement of energy in the earths crust, then what was he powering on? Silently he hoped nothing crazy had happened to him while in pod stasis. And even moreso he hoped Father wasn't in the area, since he seemed to be able to power alchemy and turn it off at the same time.

But with Greed in the vicinity, nothing could be for certain.

"Alright, here we go."

Clapping his hands, he was gratified that the familiar tingle of energy moved through his limbs as he placed them atop the small pile of wood and stone. Light flared and the molecules reshaped itself. Several animals backed away instinctively, and when it was done, Ed stood in front of a bench carved out of stone and wood.

"Still feels interesting after all this time," murmured Ed as he clapped his hands again.

A stone carving. A fresco. A towering wall. A swingset.

Ed clapped again and in a flash of light, a replica of Alphonse stood there like a statue.

For a long moment, Ed bit the inside of his lip, thinking of his brother. And then clapped again, returning it to a bench before flopping down onto it.

Ben had gone out driving early that day when he decided to take another route than speeding down the highway. Weaving into what seemed to be the suburban area of the city, he traveled down the road in search of something familiar. There were so many different homes, ranging from futuristic towers to white picket fences, but he was looking for something, anything to remind him of his house.

And then there he saw it: a cluster of homes with a gas station in the middle. Feeling hope surge, he drove up into the front of the first house and got out. "It's really here," said Ben, half awed that Stacy or whoever, had managed to preserve his HOUSE of all things.

The inside was well kept, no signs of a battle despite what he remembered. The TV was still on but flickering static and he shut it off.

Climbing up the stairs to his room, it was musty from a lack of air going through, but everything was there, including his own computer, television, bed. The lights still worked, presumably hooked into whatever was powering some of the stuff there, but there was no signal for the media which slightly upset the balance.

The kitchen was devoid of food though, save for some preserves that his mom insisted on keeping for a rainy day. Better than nothing at least, but it was a comfort from home.

The next house was Gwen's and it showed more signs of a struggle from the Ohm invasion. Clearly his family fought there. Uncle Frank was wicked with a weapon and now he knew why Superman sounded so familiar: they had the same voice. No sign of Verdona, not even her favorite cloak or energy blast marks. Seems like they took the fight elsewhere after presumably being ambushed there.

Kevin's house was a mess. Still recovering from the attack a couple of months ago, the front of the house still hung mostly open from reconstruction, but the interior was bare since Kevin had moved his mom elsewhere for the time being. Worker tools lay everywhere.

The last place he had to check was the gas station.

The gas didn't bother him, Kevin had built his car to last and it ran on alien tech. But he wanted to see what was inside. Heading to the back, he pulled a key out of the hiding place, thinking of when Elena busted in, and he swiped it. To his surprise, the door opened and a elevator stood there. "Really..." murmured Ben as he walked in and the door closed. The elevator moved down much faster than usual, but soon it was there at it's destination.

"I don't believe this," said Ben, walking into the darkened room of the underground Plumber facility that had managed to survive the trip. It was dark and some of the consoles were broken, but there was one monitor that was flickering with active light. "Lights," commanded Ben and the facility lit up with green emergency lights as he sat down. Entering his password, he booted up the file.

Ben if you're seeing this, then you've survived. We haven't got much time so I'll make it brief. You hold the key to our own universes' survival as you've guessed. The Ultimatrix is the one thing that we can't afford to let anyone get their hands on. It's too powerful as you know.

You may be wondering what happened to Primus. Well, you probably don't remember it, but Azmuth shrunk it down, and installed it into the Ultimatrix. Know that we're all worried, but we'll pull through. Don't worry about us. Give those Ohm the beating of the lifetime. Max out.

Ben, I don't want to lose you, but if Azmuth and Max say it's needed, then it's needed. You can't die, not until you're rescued. Fight, and live. You're my cousin, I don't want anything to happen to you but survive, for our sake. ...I love you Ben. Please live.

Don't screw up Tennyson. I won't forgive you if you die before us. Kay later.

More and more messages spun past him in both video and text. And Ben found himself hard-pressed not to wipe tears from his eyes.

And then the last message finished playing as Azmuth stood there in the screen, flanked by Professor Paradox and Myaxx.

"Ben Tennyson. Good luck."

And with that, the screen flickered off, leaving Ben to ponder what he had just seen.

Hydroponics was peaceful. There weren't that many people in it, and most people were willing to ignore you if you curled up in a corner with a book- well, data pad, and he almost missed the solid weight of paper and ink in his hands - and kept your head down.

And right now, Iniss wanted nothing more than to stay out of the way and avoid all of the humans and assorted alien lifeforms that had decided they were going to hunt him down for Jake.

His host was quiet, on the edge of dozing. Bored by his reading choice and content, for once. He'd sent Jake a message, and he knew Jake had to have received it.

It was a small thing, something very few other people would think much of. Telling your younger sibling you love them? Most teenagers would die first. But Tom hadn't been able to say so much as 'Hi' to his little brother in three years. It felt...nice. Comfortable. He felt almost happy. As close to happy as he'd gotten in years, even with the near miss of freedom.

And so he dozed and Iniss read and they ignored each other completely.

It could almost be said to be peaceful, if living with an alien slug in your head could ever be said to be peaceful.

Thunk-bump-bap. Thunk-bump-bap. Thunk-bump-bap.

If anyone asked, Paco was using the Sensorium for physical therapy with his cyber-arm. Thunk went the tennis ball against the side of Rogers C. Giffen Elementary School's outdoor ball-shed. Bump it went off the shoe-scuffed blacktop. Bap back into his mechanical hand.

As for what he was really doing...

Thunk-bump-bap. Thunk-bump-bap.

Yeerks. Freaking Yeerks...

The music attached to a MP3 player scavanged from W&P was blasting in Rein's house, some kind of silly J-Pop that she had immediately liked. Having hooked it up to her stereo she had also discovered in said location, she was zipping around the store, looking for her tape measure.

She hadn't done any tailor work in a while, so it was definitely something to look forward to. And snapping her fingers, a slender girl of four-eleven stood there, zipping to the back and soon coming out in a tribal-like top and skirt, something she liked to lounge around in when she could afford to wear her big-person clothing. That, and the extra arms reach was more than encouraged when doing work like this.

"Hope this is alright," said Rein to herself, fingering the soft cloth that she had hanging around. There was a huge bundle of various fabric all rolled together in the corner, and a large roll of black cloth stood there, awaiting use.

On a soft, comfortable couch on the Obs Deck, Tay is curled into a ball, sweating and shaking and looking far too pale. A large part of that might be due to the large pair of golden-brown wings that have appeared, extending from her back. She doesn't seem to be worried about the fact that she's clearly in a lot of pain, or the fact that she's sprouting wings, but it's not exactly the most fun experience.

She takes a few minutes to tap out a brief post on her omnicom, and then groans softly and squeezes her eyes shut.

This is not the most enjoyable birthday ever.

The Major asked to see him. In person.

Well, asked might be a bit of a stretch, but that's neither here nor there.

Regardless, he was willing to meet with her. She wasn't one to waste time, so he figured it had to be important. He told her to meet him at his office, where he was waiting for her now.