Of Sentience and Predator

B9: Back with a Vengeance

"Does it actually work?" Kevin asked, coming over to them.

"One way to find out," Gwen said, before the focus turned to EightEight. She stared back, silent.

After a good minute of silence, Ben said, "Since, uh, we're basically staring at a blank wall here, maybe try the other parts of Master Control?"

"I think we can write off voice command and translator copying, since," Gwen started, but motioned to the watch when she finished.

"Maybe also AI," Kevin commented.

"I... That makes sense," Gwen nodded.

"That just leaves genetic repair and codex search," Ben said. "What's genetic repair?"

The Omnitrix made no reply.

"That helps," Kevin deadpanned.

"Then what's a codex?" Gwen asked. When the watch didn't chirp, they looked at EightEight.

"Towerspark if I know," she replied.

"Ha! It works!" Gwen grinned.

The Sotoraggian face palmed as Kevin complained, "What is it with me and being the only one to not understand Sister EightEight?"

Gwen paused before looking at the Omnitrix and questioning, "Is it able to copy a translator to another translator?"

"Affirmative," the Omnitrix suddenly stated.

"Oh, so it answers on some and doesn't on others, because that makes sense," Ben growled.

"That's just some logic of robots, they do whatever the towerspark they want if they're smart enough," EightEight commented.

Kevin got out his Dragoon badge- honestly, it didn't hold much purpose to them before now- and held it out. "Will this work?" the maybe-human asked.

Gwen held the watch to the badge and asked, "Omnitrix? Can you copy the Sotoraggian translator and put that copy in the badge?"

A second passed before a green spark went between the two devices. Another second passed before another happened. One more passed before the Omnitrix stated, "Data copied and transported, unknown if active."

"Why are you three like this?" EightEight gurgled.

"Wait, it worked?!" Kevin squawked.

"Yea! Now all of us can understand Sister EightEight!" Ben chirped.

"Stop acting like birds," EightEight deadpanned.

Gwen smiled, looked at EightEight, then said, "Honk." That caused Ben to burst into laughter, Kevin barely not holding back a laugh as well.

The Sotoraggian stared at them before saying, "At least don't tell Driba, Oblique, and Nezu, alright? I'd rather avoid the glee of a Galvan."

"Ok," the Wyrmlings replied, calming down.

"... Now what?" Ben asked.

"Maybe try new transformations?" Gwen suggested.

"No," EightEight snapped. When the Wyrmlings looked at her, she added, "Do not overwhelm yourself. I suggest focusing on what you already unlocked and either practicing more with those or combos between forms. You can't do much right now, since Thornapple doesn't want anyone in the undertown during storms, but we can do what we can here."

"That makes sense. Ok," Gwen nodded.

-(...)-

Max stared ahead as he drove the Rustbucket, windshield wipers pushing the water away from view. He absentmindedly thought how Plumber tech couldn't be affected by rain before he saw something break through the clouds. Sure, the rain was dying down a bit, but-