trans_9 | Back in order: The return of the Outsiders

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Back in order: The return of the Outsiders

Katara had a sinking feeling a few weeks ago. She knew it was another memory loss: she could feel it, somewhere in the back of her head, that she'd forgotten the memories of people precious to her, and then it went off like a flag. Whoever that was must have spearheaded the Outsiders because now she couldn't remember the name of the leader anymore. So for the time being, until they decided who they wanted as their leader, she wanted to spearhead the campaign of making sure that The Outsiders didn't disband or fall apart without their leaders.

Besides, it was time they did some new stuff and got some members anyway.

She reached the hotel a few hours ahead of schedule for good reason: since all of the mission, it had gotten untidy, and Katara wasn't one to let that continue for too long. She'd gone floor to floor, dusting, washing and beating the dust off of anything she could find. She was straightening the frames, washing out the excess debris since the nightmare King fiasco and finally carefully cleaning the statue of Brainy Bot someone had made. She looked up at a moment, smiling, then turned her attention to the couch with that weird sign on it. She'd forgotten the details, but it had something to do with a crisis that had happened on Carol's world...she thought. She couldn't keep track of all of the things that happened in other people's worlds. It was too much information to keep up with.

She finally settled back to the front of the building, sitting down at the head of where all the tables and chairs, and stared going through the list of people she could still recall were in the Outsiders.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow

Sokka

Mai

Haku

Alessa (?)

She sighed. She knew there were more people than this, but it HAD been awhile since they met In any case, now she was hoping she could get a more comprehensive list of people still in or at least willing to join the Outsiders. Courtesy of Matt, she'd gotten some refreshments, and there was now a big sign that said: OUTSIDERS: EXISTING AND NEW MEMBERS WELCOME on a banner if front of the motel.

She was also hoping, along with Toph, Sokka and Mai arriving, that a certain bald headed monk might make an appearance too.

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"I'd rather not have it happen," Katara said. "I might forget certain things, but they could be really nice memories of friends that I've made. I don't like knowing that can happen. I'm used to facing my future right in front of me."

Here Katara looked confused. "Scans?"

"Tell me about it. I've had my memory mucked once or twice before. Doesn't help it happens here." said Ben.

He nodded and pushed his sleeve back, revealing the Ultimatrix. "My Ultimatrix takes scans of different species, and catalogs them. But not only that, I can turn into another species of alien when I want to."

"More often than it should," Katara said, "and the worst thing is having an idea that you're missing something but not really knowing what that something is. Right now, I forgot who lead us in The Outsiders."

Katara stared at the Ultimatrix in wonder. "That's amazing! Does everyone in your world have something like this, or is it just you Ben?"

"Maybe the two are connected then, seeing how I can't remember who recruited me." mused Ben.

He shook his head. "This is level 20 Alien Tech, the only of it's kind since I blew up the last one. Here, I'll show you.

And he twisted the dial, selecting an alien and hitting the plunger (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5NVd9z43jk). In a flash of light, Chromastone took a pose with the yell of "CHROMASTONE!"

"I'm betting that's why I have to gather everyone now," Katara said, sighing. "Before, we just had out leaders. With them gone, I want to make sure that we keep our group alive, but for that we're going to need some leadership again. I just hope they all come."

The change happened pretty fast, and Katara barely had time to utter a gasp before the boy changed into a strange looking person with spikes coming out of his back. She moved a little closer, still stunned.

"W-wow. How can it DO that?"

Chromastone nodded and grinned at Katara's surprise. "The Ultimatrix can sample people's DNA, and transform me into different aliens. Like this one too."

He tapped the button and in a flash of light, he exclaimed, "Spidermonkey ook ook!" He did a backflip.

"There's tons of aliens I can transform into."

WELL. She could see now why whoever was the leader of the Outsiders had thought Ben would be a big help: who knew you had powers like this? There was no way to hide the stunned look on her face, which just got worse when Ben transformed into a spidermonkey.

Which made sense, considering she had never seen anything quite like it before.

"Can you transform into people on this ship too?" Katara asked, intrigued.

"Depends actually, if we've loaded their DNA profile into the machine. Oh I know. Here."

Twisting the dial, he tapped the device and green light flared as a tall strapping Kryptonian stood there with green eyes. "Superman and I got to talking while cleaning up and the Omnitrix scanned him."

That was definitely something that Katara was going to have to gradually get used to. For Ben to have the ability to change into any alien DNA...she was surprised there weren't people trying to get him to lead a team or go on the security team. When she remembered how the adults viewed the super powered kids though, she frowned. That was probably WHY he wasn't on any of the ship command teams.

"I've heard of the Superman guy," Katara said. "He's supposed to be pretty strong. How long can you stay in these forms anyway?"

"Used to be only twenty minutes. Now I can go maybe an hour or two? Heck I can survive in deep space depending on the form." SuperBen grinned at that, shrugging a little.

"It also drains the charge a lot faster if I swap forms repeatedly during a fight. And it's got an Ultimate mode too that increases the power of my aliens."

Katara shook her head, amazed. "You're like some kind of super kid, Ben, not that there's anything wrong with that! I guess I'm still adjusting to people and their strength: I'm only just starting to get magic and mutants, I didn't know people could switch forms! Most of my strength is in my element and martial art."

She stretched and casually brought a stream of water from the pool, touching it lightly and then wrinkling her nose. "Still too cold. Better have it warm up before the others get here."

"Yeah, it's something alright. Though it comes with a lot of responsibility. I only have a fraction of the aliens loaded into the Ultimatrix, and there's a million to go."

"Warm? I could probably help with that."

Touching his chest, he shifted forms into a red, green and black plant alien. "SWAMPFIRE!" One of his hands lit up with flame. "I could probably give it a shot."

"I can imagine!" Katara said. "With all of the strength and abilities you possess, I'm sure that it would be tempting to misuse them from time to time. I'm sure that happens with anyone who has power."

She smiled. "Sure, thanks." He didn't seem all too surprised that she was able to bring the water to her: maybe she already knew about her power.

The fire made her wince a little. "Sorry. I just....a ew bad memories with fire. But thank you."

Ben laughed at that. "As a kid when I got this power, I did nothing BUT misuse it! It was one big game for me."

"It's okay, I've got control." Stooping down, he adjusted the flame just a little and then tossed it into the water where it boiled and hissed for a moment. Sticking his finger in, he smiled. "It's warmer now. Not hot, but the chill's been taken off."

"That thing you did with the water, are you hydrokinetic? It means you can move water."

Katara laughed. "Then you're lucky! Some people who have done that in the past ran into some pretty big trouble."

Katara exhaled when he finished off with the fire. She didn't fear fire when, say, Zuko used it, but seeing it just made her think of the last time she had encountered fire: the final fight with Azula.

Katara nodded. "Well, in my world, its called waterbending: we use rhythmic martial art to do what we do. Its strongest with moonlight, and weakest with the sun."

"I was a kid given superpowers. It was the only option," chuckled Swampfire.

"That's pretty cool," said Swampfire as he transformed back to Ben in a blip of green light. "My cousin Gwen does about the same thing, but she combines physical attacks with what people would call magic. She bends the mana in the universe to her whim, and it manifests in a pink light."

"I know what you mean," Katara said, "And at the same time, when I lost control as a kid, I could crack icebergs!"

Katara frowned at the idea of bending anything to her whim. "I can do that to, with the physical attacks: in fact, that's what I'm training for right now, to fight without my bending if i ever need to. Don't get me wrong though: I would never say that I bend water to MY will. In a way, we both coexist as things of nature."

Ben nodded, thinking of Gwen's powers. "Gwen well, our grandmother Verdona is an Anodyte, a being that is literally made out of the Energy of the Universe." And you could hear the capitalization in those words. "Gwen was born with the same spark, but even before that she earned her black belt in karate and jujitsu. She was scary as a kid, more-so as an adult."

Katara shook he head. That world really almost sounded too good to be true. She supposed if you studied martial arts in all that time, you could certainly get a black belt, but being made out of the energy of the universe TOO? That was almost Avatar kind of stuff, and it made her head spin.

"You guys must have had a lot to deal with in your world then," Katara said. "Hopefully, yours didn't have a war like mine did that nearly tore the world apart!"

"Ah heh... actually we did." said Ben, rubbing his head. Why was he finding all of these parallels? Seriously!

"Back home about a half a year ago, there was an invasion from a race known as the Highbreed, an alien race bent on exterminating mankind because they believed in racial purity, and because their own DNA was damaged after centuries of manipulation to it, they decided to wipe out the residents of the galaxy and then take themselves out. I managed to befriend one of them and he helped when we went to their home planet and confronted their leaders. It was pretty much all out war, but the war on our end was fought with 10 people vs a hundred or more."

Katara laughed. "Well, its not really something funny, but it is a crazy coincidence that we would have that similarity, you know? It wasn't any fun to live through, but we did, and grew stronger for that reason."

Here, the conversation took a darker turn. Katara gestured to the statue of Braniac 5. "I don't know if you heard about this, or were here for it, but in one of our missions, we lost him due to some oversights and lack of information on our parts. I'm not saying we'll ever be able to save every single person and win every skirmish or anything...but I want us to be something that remembers things like Braniac 5's sacrifice for the ship. It seems like a lifetime away, but I won't ever forget. That's why I'm training in a few different disciplines: I will always be a waterbender, but if I'm without water, I need to find a way to defend myself and my friends."

"I didn't think so, but it's good to know." Ben looked up at the statue and nodded. "I know how it is to lose people. I thought Max died nearly a year ago taking out a Highbreed ship. And it nearly wrecked me too. But I'm definitely planning on learning more."

Katara nodded. "It's been difficult to get the people on the ship to really think as a family. A lot of the time we get thrown into arguments: who's evil in one reality, who's angry about one thing over another. I'll admit that I wasn't much better when I got here, but so much has changed since then."

She grinned and clasped Ben's hand. "I'm really glad to hear that! As soon as we get a leader for the Outsiders, we can even start training sessions!"

Ben grinned, clasping Katara's back. "Sounds great! I've been a bit of a teacher myself so I can help in any way I can."

Katara returned the smile. "Oh good! I'm still learning from some people here too: I know martial arts, waterbending, and I'm learning the ways of the Bene Gesserit, but it would be great to have someone else instructing too!"

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