"Let's go!" Lilynete screamed at the top of her lungs as she rode on the back of a colossal whale-like creature. As it flew through the eternal night sky of Hueco Mundo, it was as long as several cargo ships.
Equipped with several fins and feelers like a jellyfish that grew from the beast's underbelly. The way the thing moved had a horrific beauty as it seemed to reflect the light of the unchanging Crescent moon.
On its front, most fins were a black arm band and hour glass. The creature that carried the crew of arrancar was, of course, Ben. This was a new transformation named Cosby. On his back were Lilynete, Starrk, Loly, Menoly, Rudborrn, and surprisingly, Ulquiorra, the fourth Espada.
The fourth Espada was an enigma to Ben; he had quite unquestionable loyalty to Aizen. However, there was no passion behind his eyes nor a desire to even live. Ben had a hard time figuring out the man, but he guessed that his desire to follow their group on this hunt was a mission given by Aizen.
"Your transformations are quite useful, Tennyson." The black haired man complimented while only staring off into the distance. His only response was a cry from the behemoth of an alien that sounded like a song.
"Yawn, he said thanks." The Primera Espada said from his current position by the alien's dorsal fin, with Rodburrn to his right and Menoly to his left. There was enough space for him to lie down and then some more.
Loly, Lilynete, and the fourth Espada sat by his head. The seven man squad made their way east to the quick sand sea in search of Gillians. Ben had an aversion to hunting and consuming sentient beings.
So, the group accommodated by choosing to hunt Gillians.
" You can understand him, that's quite interesting." The gloomy young man said.
"Not a lick! I'm just guessing honestly." The older man gave his younger counterpart a lax shrug. Which was met with a barely audible 'hmm.'
"Can't lie. This is definitely better than having to fly there myself." Loly said to no one in particular as her pigtails danced in the wind and seemingly being lost in dark curtains of the night.
A cry resounded from the massive being that carried the group. Everyone drew their attention ahead and saw a plane that glittered with blue specks. A black mass appeared and disappeared repeatedly as they flew in and out of the sand.
"Always a view, right?" Menoly spoke to the two men beside her. Starrk lazily nodded while Rudborrn perked up.
"Hardly compares to the magnificent view of the sun underneath the canopy. Should we land my lords?" The bull skull masked arrancar spoke, having given his opinion. He directed his gaze to the two swords of Aizen, who both seemed unbothered to respond.
"Ah, yes, any plans, my ladies?" The duo of Loly and Menoly gave short shakes of their heads to say no.
However, the number one's Fracción had a devilish grin on her face.
"I do. Ben, do your thing." With that command, an emerald light overtook the vision of all those present, and soon they all felt the distinct lack of anyone beneath them.
They all quickly gathered reishi underneath their feet to prevent themselves from falling.
"OK, what the hell?!" Loly's shock came not from the potentially lethal fall, but the emergence of a great pillar of orange blue flames in the distance that caused the nearby sand to turn into glass.
"Fires new." Menoly commented as the others flew down to meet the alien shape-shifter. A swarm of black gathered round the epicenter of the fire. Each arrancar slashed or simply crushed the Gillians that made the swarm.
These Gillians appeared to be more akin to sword fish in their appearance, Hueco Mundo was odd in the types of monsters it spawned.
The six arrancar were finally on the now glass floor. The heat emanated felt like an angry sun god was punishing them with the worst heat wave ever seen.
"Haha, come at me, you small fry!" The declaration of a mad fiend was heard, and the group saw a being made of dark rock and magma with a blazing head and shoulders that spewed flames. As always, a pair of white and black pants was one of the key defining features with the omnitrix badge as a buckle.
Heatblast was his name, and wherever he went, he would go up in flames. Quite literally this time as he combated the black mass of Gillians with his spear of flames and several fireballs that spawned behind him.
"H-he's good!" Loly stammered as her partner danced around the mindless masses of souls. Striking the vitals of their enemies while delivering, covering fire to the other when needed.
Lilynete and Starrk together as seemingly one entity. The tiny girl used ludicrous strength and speed to slaughter her foes as her superior fired Ceros with frightening accuracy and power.
Rudborrn fought defensively and his power to create Calaveras was rendered useless due to Ben's incineration of the battlefield.
The fourth Espada seemed unbothered as always, barely moving to cut down his enemies. His attention was fixated on the walking inferno. He noted how he fought the force and intent behind each blow. Each dodge, counter, and ability he used.
"We're losing ground. How are we losing ground?!" Lilynete shouted for the whole team to hear as she smashed in the faces of the sword fish looking Gillians with powerful kicks.
"Seems like there's something else going on here." Starrk voiced as he shot a Cero blast of unbridled power that tore through several of Menos.
"Keep up the pressure!" Heatblast said as ten large blue fireballs manifested in the sky as he raised his arms. Then they fell with them.
Explosions rocked the battlefield, and glass made from his earlier assault flew into the air, shining like small stars. The monsters dispersed for a few moments.
"Hmm." The fourth Espada only gave the most bare-bones response to the demonstration of strength from his latest ally as he cleaved apart the remaining Gillians that surrounded him.
Three out of the seven combatants were winded. Loly, Menoly, and Rudborrn they took in deep breaths in an attempt to gather strength for a second wind.
While the average arrancar out classed most hollows, their strength was dependent on which stage of their evolution as Menos Grande they were before obtaining their powers.
Most arrancars were Adhuchas, the second stage. However, even then there were stages, low grade defined newly evolved Adhuchas, mid grade was for seasoned ones, and lastly high grade was for Adhuchas on the cusp of becoming Vasto Lorde.
The three arrancars who were exhausted were mid grades. They could be killed if enough Gillians grouped up. However, it was only natural that they would be exhausted, and it spoke volumes to the power of the Espada. Each of them was a Vasto Lorde before becoming, and arrancar these ten were veritable demi-gods for hollow kind.
Most surprisingly, Ben seemed to be on that level of power as well as if combat as whole was mundane to him.
'Damn, is the gulf between us really that large!' Rudborrn expected that as a human, Ben's overall skill in combat fell behind even the lowest of arrancar. However, his near one man army march through the swarm proved him wrong. Ben's skill and combat capabilities rivaled the Espada, who existed in a dimension of strength all their own.
'Wait, is he like him?' The image of an orange haired black clothed youth flashed in the mind of Rudborrn.
'If Kurasaki with the powers of both Hollows and Shinigami is considered a monster. Ben must be a true demon!' The executioner shuddered as he leaned on his sword.
"That was awesome! How'd you do it!" Lilynete dashed to the flaming alien's side, jumping up and down with joy as he stared into the distance.
"Something from the north?" Stark was back to back with aliens as he moved Lilynete between them. He held his sword in the left while he ensured his right was ready to fire a Cero at an instant.
Ben formed two fire short swords, everyone else beside Ulquiorra joined the small Lilynete behind the duo. Everyone's nerves were on edge as they scanned the environment.
"Ben, what's going on?" Menoly asked as she held her dagger to her chest as she scanned every inch of the sand and glass.
"The Gillians I torched with my flames, their carcasses aren't here. They just faded away, like - run!" The gathered fire to lift the group into the air as the glass field shattered and from below rose a masked abomination whose tendrils seemed to desire to touch the stars. It's body if you could call the amorphous darkness opposite the white mask a body.
The gravity seemed to increase as the monster laughed manically.
"Haha, good show, good show indeed! It is rare for me to take to the stage myself, so be honored that I, Goromada, shall be your end."
Soon, tendrils of blackness and light shot to the group like high-speed projectiles.
"Hold on taking evasive maneuvers!" Everyone looked at each other the tornado of flames which became their ship and grabbed onto the hot-headed alien, including Ulquiorra.
The tornado moved like a comet against the black background of the eternal night. The movement of the tendrils was random to the point that Goromada even struck himself. A game of cat and mouse began. Occasionally would get close. However, the tendrils were met with a volley of Ceros.
Until they ceased, he took that as a sign of his foe's exhaustion and struck, only to be struck with three fireballs. They were too weak to do significant harm, so the damage was disregarded; his target was the abundant spiritual energy he sensed.
He was close; he felt that he just needed to devour those beings, then he'll become a Vasto Lorde, then he'll be invincible underneath the star lit sky!
He caught the tornado, ignoring the burns, and he slammed it to the ground. There, he saw its four inhabitants - wait four!
"Where are the rest of you?!" He received his answer in the form of a sonic attack, poison to the side and the sting of hundreds of blades.
From three corners around his large frame , a harpy, a centipede hybrid, and a tree that grew skulls showed themselves. It was Loly, Menoly, and Rudborrn in their resection forms, and they each gravely wounded the abomination.
"How did yo ?!-" The beast silenced itself after it remembered the three attacks that came from the tornado beforehand.
'Ah, yes, these three hid in the attacks in order to approach me without being seen. Ah, I fell into my own. This is truly a fitting end to one as great as I!' These were the beast's words before being killed by the efforts of the three arrancar before him.
"Finally! He's down, let's cut him up for what he's worth as payback." Loly screamed out to the other two arrancar who returned to their base forms just like herself. Menoly ran towards her and then Loly felt the elbow of her friend and partner dig into her stomach.
"The heck-?!" Loly clutched her stomach as she struggled to express her pain, she looked up towards Menoly with fierce eyes bending over due to the pain.
Her friend looked at her with a sharp that looked like cut diamonds, she notched her head to the side to signal to Loly where to look. In that direction were the four strongest of their group, who all seemed perfectly unharmed from the battle with the swordfish like Menos to the one with Goromada. The only thing different was the dark and sullen expression taken on by the fire alien even with his skull-like face it was clear to see what was on his mind as he stared at their foes' lifeless limbs.
"Ben-" Loly wanted to say something but was cut off by Rudborrn who ran to the alien and bowed before him. His uniform was in taters like the two girls but he seemed to disregard that.
"Ben. Please forgive me for my inability to subdue our opponent. I feel ashamed not only because I let you down but also because we might have lost a potential ally for the war to come." The bull skull arrancar said with the utmost sincerity for all intents and purposes Ben was basically the eleventh espada so he as the executioner of Las Noches felt as though he had failed one of his superiors.
The Pyronite did not say a word instead he lifted his left foot and dropped it once more off the ground, beneath the sand fire traveled until it reached Rudborrn and shot out and forced the arrancar to jump. only to be grabbed by the alien's right hand and receive light slaps from his left.
"Get over yourself will ya! You killed him I get it, is that what I would have done, no. Do I understand, yes! Your lives where on the line and protecting yourselves is what's important I not mad, I'm glad you guys are safe that's all." The alien spoke with a calm voice different from his battle crazed one from earlier on, something inside the three arrancar seemed to move.
They felt inspired.
Lilynete jabbed the alien with her elbow. "Your cool sides slipping out again." Her playful comment received a stern 'humph'.
"What are you talking about? I'm always cool." The alien let go of the arrancar executioner and began to argue with the little girl like siblings.
"Hey, you three help me out. I found a few of those Gillian corpses around this hole. Let's get what we need and leave yawn I'm beat."
The three arrancar all agreed and went to go and help the older man.
As the fourth espada looked on as a spectator.
...
The fourth espada had removed his left eye and crushed it as the specks travelled towards Aizen; he understood everything that transpired on that day.
"Ulquiorra, I thank you for your efforts. I have what I need to ensure your rest properly when I call for again." Aizen said in his ever charming tone from his seat in the dark room that seemed to have been carved from the depths of a dark mountain.
The Espada raised his right hand to his left, bowed and took his leave, unconcerned for his eye that would regenerate with time.
"I assume you're happy with Tennyson, no?" A purple light and distorted voice came from above Aizen's head. Who simply rested his head on his right hand as he closed his eyes.
"Yes, however, how do I know he or you won't become a thorn in my side after all is said and done." Aizen's charming voice seemed to take on an icy tone.
"Haha, ah, cautious as always, but to answer your question I honestly have no interest in what you seek to do to the world, so you have nothing to worry about on my end. And with Tennyson it all depends on how you use him, the ball is in your court my friend." The voice spoke and then faded alongside the light thus Aizen sat alone once more.