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// Secrets of the Deltamatrix 
// Story: 10 New Heroes 
// by Darth Severus 
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Spike was meeting with Ben and Rook at Plumber HQ. He wanted to know more about his Deltamatrix, so he decided to go ask them about it. When he arrived, he walked in and saw Rook, "Hey Rook, glad to see you, where's Ben?"

Rook looked over to Spike and said, "Ben's at school right now. Shouldn't you be in school too?"

Spike nodded, "Normally, yes, but my school got badly damaged in an alien attack, and they're not done repairing."

"I see, well, what can I do for you, Spike?" Rook asked Spike, and when he asked about the Deltamatrix, he said, "I don't know much about the Deltamatrix to be honest. All I know is that it's an upgraded version of the Ultimatrix, and has the same evolutionary feature as the Ultimatrix."

Spike raised an eyebrow, "I didn't think Ben still used the Ultimatrix, I thought he had a new Omnitrix."

Rook nodded, "He does, but the Ultimatrix was never properly disposed of, so Albedo was able to recreate it as the Deltamatrix."

Spike looked at his Deltamatrix and thought "The Ultimate forms were really dangerous back in the day, I hope I don't have to use them."

Spike's thoughts were cut off by a familiar voice, "So, you must be Spike. Good to meet you." Spike looked up to see Max Tennyson, who continued, "I'm Max Tennyson, Ben's grandpa. I'm sure you want to learn more about your Deltamatrix. Come with me, I had a copy of the blueprints saved on my computer, I can show you more about what it can do."

Spike followed Max upstairs, and when they arrived in a room with dozens of computers, Spike sat down in front of the one that Max walked up to. He looked over the designs and asked, "Wait, the Deltamatrix can fuse aliens?"

Max nodded, "That's one of the more unique features. I suggest you train before using that feature in a fight. We've got plenty of training equipment if you want to."

Spike nodded, "I'd like that." before following Max to a training room. He activated the Deltamatrix and looked through aliens after activating Fusion Mode. "Hmm... let's go with Heatblast and Water Hazard!" before slamming the button down and turning into a fusion, "Fire Hazard!" before looking at himself in a mirror, "Sweet! This is a totally wicked transformation! All right, he's a fusion of Heatblast and Water Hazard, so let's see..." before seeing a pool, "Well, Water Hazard can breathe underwater, but how would Heatblast react with water? Only one way to find out I guess." before running towards and jumping into the pool. His heat combined with the water created a thick rock armor around his body. The only problem, it was a bit difficult to move.

Spike slammed against the bottom of the pool and jumped out. "Well, that answers that question, now let's test out how tough this armor is!" before walking to an armor testing section of the training room, "Hit me as hard as you can!"

Max got on the computer that was used for armor testing and said, "We'll start off easy just to be safe." before letting off small lasers and bullets that just ricocheted off of Fire Hazard's new rocky armor. As the ammunition got stronger, Fire Hazard's armor stood through before Max said, "All right, that's as far as we go, I don't want the armor breaking and hurting you."

Spike nodded, before shooting water from his body and shattering the rocky armor. "Do you have any training drones? I want to test something against something that actually reacts back."

Max thought for a moment, "I've got some men who can help, we'll set their lasers to stun though, just in case."

Spike gulped at the thought of being hit with a stunning laser but nodded. As the Plumbers came out from the back, Spike let out steam from the vents on Fire Hazard's shoulders, causing a smokescreen that made it hard to see, but Spike could see right through it, maneuvering himself and knocking out the trainers. As he knocked the last one out, he inhaled deeply, and the steam entered back into the vents on his shoulders.

As the Deltamatrix timed out, Spike jumped in the air excitedly, "Awesome! If Fire Hazard was that cool, I wonder what other sorts of fusions there are!"

Max chuckled, "You remind me of Ben at your age. You think before you act though, Ben didn't learn to strategize until he put the original Omnitrix back on after we'd finally gotten it off of him."

Spike smiled, "Thanks, Mr. Tennyson. It was nice of you to help me train with the Deltamatrix. Maybe when it recharges, I can try out a new fusion."

Max nodded, "Of course, the training room's ready to train you whenever you need to train. The fusion is the main feature of the Deltamatrix, but Albedo implied there were even more new features, and that he designed the Deltamatrix purely as a weapon. But it's not the weapon that makes the choices, it's the person wielding the weapon."

Spike nodded, "Right, a weapon is only as good or bad as the person who uses it. I'm glad I was the one who got the Deltamatrix, I don't know what might have happened if it got into the wrong hands."

Max nodded, "And I personally don't want to think of what could happen if it did. Still, it does surprise me you found the Deltamatrix in a toy store."

Spike nodded, "Yeah, that is kind of weird. Maybe it was left there for somebody else to claim?"

Meanwhile at an unknown planet...

Albedo was being chastised by a strange alien who said, "You idiot! The dropoff point was a toy store!? How did it not occur to you that somebody would think it was a toy and buy it!"

Albedo growled, "Hey, I didn't pick the dropoff point, one of your goons is responsible for that Tirek."

The alien, Tirek growled, "And you didn't think to alert me when you arrived at the dropoff point and discovered it was a toy store? And you Galvans call yourselves the smartest race in the universe! Dr. Psycobos may have been maniacal, but at least he kept good on his word!"

Albedo growled back, "Hey, don't you dare imply Cerebrocrustaceans are smarter than Galvans! Even the dumbest Galvans are smarter than the-"

Tirek rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes, I've heard that speech dozens of times. Find the Deltamatrix, or I'll send you to the beast pits, and when you find it, don't act, alert me!"

And so, while Spike learns of the Fusion Mode feature of the Deltamatrix, across the galaxy, an alien named Tirek seems to be involved in the creation of the Deltamatrix and threatens Albedo in order to get the Deltamatrix back. Will Albedo be able to get it back, or will he suffer a fate worse than death?