The freezing metal against his palms is almost a relief, for once. The uncomfortable sensation draws him out of his thoughts, grounding him back in the real world.
Hours upon hours he had spent silently hoping, begging anything out there that might listen to let his brother still be alive.
Now, Crosshair almost wishes that Tech had been killed after all.
He still remembers so viscerally how swiftly his free will had been snatched away from him, before he had even noticed it was gone. As if he were nothing more than a mindless clanker. It’s one thing for it to have happened to him, but the thought of it being forced upon Tech, innocent, infuriatingly selfless Tech - his hands curl into fists, fingernails digging into his palms as he fights off a sudden wave of nausea.
Crosshair’s only hope is that whatever they’ve done to him is stronger than the inhibitor chips were. That if the real Tech is still in there somewhere, he isn’t aware of what’s happening to him. Because if he is, if he knows what he’s being forced to do… it’s worse than any torture that Hemlock could devise.
The tightness in his chest is growing again. He swallows, pushing past the constriction to force himself to speak. “Omega?”
The little girl shows no sign that she’s even heard him. She hasn’t moved from her curled-up position since the door sealed behind them - arms locked around her knees, frozen to the spot except for the trembling of her shoulders.
There’s a part of him that wants nothing more than to retreat back into his own shell, to shut Omega out along with the rest of the world, and yet he can’t. Something about the way her breath hitches with barely stifled sobs twists his gut into knots.
“Omega,” he hisses, leaning forward to give her shoulder a wary nudge.
There’s silence, before Omega finally unfurls herself. For a moment, she just gazes up at him, despairing eyes glistening with tears. And then, she surges forward, flinging her arms around his neck with a sudden reckless abandon.
It takes a lot to surprise Crosshair, but that certainly does the trick. He stiffens, his arms automatically straightening in front of him - just short of touching Omega. She’s crying properly now, burying her face in his shoulder as she sobs.
Should he say something? What is there to say? He knows better than to lie, to assure that everything will be alright. What’s the point in telling her something that both of them know not to be true?
Hunter would know what to do, they all would, but he’s not like them. He’s a ticking time bomb, a fractured, savage beast held together by fraying threads.
And yet he’s all that she has left.
There’s nothing that he can do for his brother, not now. But there might be something he can do for Omega.
Tentatively, he wraps an arm around her back, holding her closer against him. The other hand mechanically combs through her curls, a wooden attempt at replicating the way Hunter used to soothe him.
Whatever he’s doing, it seems to be working. Gradually, Omega’s breathing slows, her sobs fading to dejected sniffles. She makes no move to raise her head from his shoulder, still clinging on tight to him.
Crosshair is her only anchor in the storm, now. Him, the last person in the galaxy she should trust to keep her safe.
And yet, for some unfathomable reason, she does.
Promises can be dangerous things, especially ones that have no guarantee of being kept. Crosshair knows that all too well.
But danger has never put him off before, has it?
The promise that he makes to himself in that moment is a silent one. It doesn’t change the fact that they’re still imprisoned in a cell with no conceivable way of escaping, or that all it takes is one word to make him disappear, or that his own brother is one of the ones keeping him trapped as a lab rat.
All the same, something seems to shift inside him. The pain hasn’t gone away, but now there’s something else alongside it. A fire that died long ago, and is only just starting to glimmer back to life.
It’s him that got Omega into this hellhole in the first place, and it’s going to be him that gets her out of here alive. And after he does, nothing is ever going to hurt her again.
Whatever it takes.
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Something that I have been secretly obsessing over for forever is the idea of a Ben 10 (or general Omnitrix wielder) that goes full superhero and goes and designs secret identities for EVERY transformation, seeing as how though perhaps the wielder themself is from a human perspective disguised behind the face of an alien, well- fairly certain that transformations have their own degree of recognisability themselves-
Find out more in the cut below-
I mean, from the perspective of a human Omnitrix wielder like Ben or many other characters from canon to original may focus on the visual aspect of recognition, so maybe species with more than one recognisable feature or a completely different set of recognition (vulpimancers may recognise scent and perhaps sound, pyronites may recognise - among sight - heat signature or temperature) are kinda looked over without actually putting their all into studying ‘what makes me recognisable’, but like- in all honesty this is just me rambling about what human masks would fit the Omnitrix translation to certain alien transformations without proving detrimental to any of their abilities.
What kind of mask would a lepidopterran wear, one that conserves confidentiality without detracting from mouth-based protectiles, what about piscciss volann with their biting? What about a mask with a beaded mouth covering, perhaps one with antennae (or lures) of it’s own? What kind of mask that a human can wear be safely used on a pyronite? Give em a flame retardant gas mask, one maybe with an open back just to maintain the flame headed aesthetic.
Can you even mask every transformation? Beyond the Omnitrix sample of arburian pelarota being the very few examples of the newly practically if not extinct species, can you mask a face that rests on the main body? Is recognition of Arburia dictacted in fact by the face of a pelarota or is it determined by shell and (apparently they have hair) fur patterns?
Well, perhaps in that case a superhero outfit is best for the situation!
What superhero mask doesn’t come it with it’s own superhero costume? Well perhaps you could outfit your arburian pelarota transformation with a cloth ‘mask’ that physically acts as the shirt, they do after all have ‘eyeless vision’, all in due part according to their sensory fur (how do you think they see when rolling rolling?). Why not pair our pyronite mask with a firefighter coat, make them seem like a heroic rescuer rather than a TF2 Pyro main, the chunkier and more Fire Force it looks the better. And what about another member or a near extinct species petrosapiens sporting layers of sound absorbing clothing, worn with perhaps a full head mask that also helps insulate from sound as a defense whilst keeping up an optimal level of anonymity.
Masks with bells, give them to aliens that recognise with sound. Masks with real flowers, give them to aliens that recognise with scent. Put a mask in the fridge or let it sit in the sun, give it to an alien that recognises temperature.
What degree does body shape affect alien recognition, how different do you want to make the body look, how does your superhero outfit work to perhaps benefit your transformation.
How do you mask an opticoid? Give them a lacy mask/shirt, they don’t give a shit about chest nudity! How do you costume a gourmand? Give them a jacket they can zip right open, maybe just straight up sleeves with extra material that MIMICS a jacket! How about a loboan? Give them a long-nosed eye mask, it doesn’t need to cover the mouth so long as it covers the top of the snout!
Ough I love masks so much-
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