#uxorite

"Welcome to the cool kids table, sparkles." Carl joked.

"Stop talking, this is all your fault to start with." Natalie glared at him.

"My fault?!" Carl snapped at her, levitating the table with so much force in his anger that it was cracking under his emotionally charged powers. "You think I asked to be stripped of my natural form and confined to a human body that-"

"Carl, honey, put it down." Sandra hushed him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind and petting his chest. "It's okay."

Carl sighed, setting the table back down as his tentacles wrapped around her arms.

"So, uh, is there a way to fix it so I'm.. I guess glowing like Mom or Gwen or Sunny?" Frank asked, because there still could be hope for him.

"I'm not entirely sure," Azmuth said, looking at him. "As Anodites do not possess dna in a sense, it isn't known how an offspring would do so. In fact, you are one of three Anodite-human hybrids. The other two are your own son and daughter." The Galvan confessed. "The conditions to unlock your abilities seem to be enviromental. Gwen has the key, so it's best to consult her."

"I know a few spells, off the top, that might help?" Gwen offered.

"I'm willing to try." Frank looked from Gwen to Natalie, who he could tell wasn't happy. "Honey?"

"So, all of this freakishness is suddenly okay?" She snapped at him. "You're fine with your brother being a fish-faced lizard monster, our daughter being a walking glow lamp, dating an alien thing, and don't even get me started on Sandra or Ben-"

There was a sudden scream - followed by more screaming. It seemed Sandra had finally had it, tackling Natalie into the table and breaking it - Azmuth jumping onto one of the many necrofriggian babies that flew about in a panic, bad idea because this was worse than riding a crazed Vulpimancer.

"Help!"

"Guys! My babies! Don't worry, it's okay! Nana's just grumpy! Come on!" Ben ran to and fro, grabbing all of his babies that he could to form a cuddle pile, with Kevin running to help him by firing up the power dampener to keep the babies from going intangible and leaving the house.

Gwen, meanwhile, was with Carl and Frank, trying to separate Sandra from Natalie.

"Insult me all you want you, Cataline! But I've had it with you going after Carl and the kids!" Sandra had the woman's short, tackily cut, red hair in her hands.

"Let go of me, you crazy bitch!" Natalie was trying to get Sandra off of her. But it was not use, at first, because Sandra had her pinned real good despite her hands being firmly stuck in her hair.

Carl gave Sandra a bear hug, trying to pull her off, "Sandra, let her go. She isn't worth going to jail over."

Sandra let her grip on Natalie's tacky hair ease up, allowing Carl to drag her away from the other woman.

Natalie was.. very mad as she scrambled up to her feet. She didn't have a mark on her, just pain, especially in her scalp. "Frank, we are suing that blond bimbo-"

"We aren't doing anything." Frank said, voice firm. "As far as I'm concerned? She was protecting her family."

Natalie glared at him, before looking at Gwen. "Gwen? I know you saw what happened."

Gwen had a few of Ben's babies huddled against her, and she looked from her mother to them, back to her mother. "Mom, you've ran Uncle Carl and Aunt Sandra and even Grandpa Max and Dad and Ben a few times down for years. You had that coming, as far as I'm concerned." She moved the babies closer to herself.

Natalie glowered at them before she walked away to the door, and leaving the house.

"I'm sorry, Frank." Sandra said, looking at her brother in law.

"Sorry for what?" Frank looked at her. "I should have put my foot down sooner. I'm sorry you had to be the one to do it." He looked at Gwen. "Gwen, honey, I-"

"Dad, stop." Gwen said to him. "If Mom wants normalcy over family? Let her have that. I like our family better."

Frank nodded with a smile. "Me too."

"Guys? We really gotta get those aliens. Now." Kevin said, covered in four kids to himself - two of which were not confirmed to be Gwen-two and Ben-two. "I last heard them talking about the docks."

"Perfect!" Ben grinned, his face surrounded by a sea of light blue. "Dad, come on! You can test your powers!"

Carl took a moment to think, before nodding. "Okay-"

"Wait, Carl! Is the," Frank made a gesture with his arms and body. "Still here?"

"The?" Carl thought about it. "Oh yeah! Come on Frank!" They ran up the stairs and the attic ladder was heard dropping.

"What is, this?" Kevin asked, mimicking the gesture.

Ben and Gwen looked at Sandra.

"I don't know," Sandra said, hitting the power dampener switch to shut it off. The two were heard coming back down quickly.

"Don't drop it!"

"Don't step on my tail again, four eyes!"

"You can float!"

"I can not!"

"Yeah, you can!"

"How do you know?"

"You have three eyes, and can pick up things by thinking, idiot! Of course you can fly!"

"Did you just stereotype me!"

"Don't make me throw you out the window to show you!" They arrived into the room, shoving each other. On his shoulder, Carl had a .. bazooka?

"Nice piece, but we gotta go." Kevin pushed them along.

-------------

The whole clutch of the Tennyson clan, and Azmuth, arrived at the docks.

"Ben, no." Gwen said, as Ben went to open up a box of parts.

"But Gwen, my babies are all hungry." Ben said to her.

"Son, we'll go to the scrap yard and pick out a nice car and parts," Carl said. "Sound good?"

"Yeah it does." Ben grinned to his disappointed babies. "You hear that, guys? Bubby's gonna treat you!"

"I have some scrap metal from my experiments," Azmuth said to Ben, "I can send it over when I return."

Kevin hushed the chittering little moths. "Quiet! They'll hear-"

Cue the screaming of the Dnaliens.

"Nice, Benlets." Kevin sighed, grabbing a rail and having his body absorb the material. Gwen got ready and Ben picked an alien fast as a whole herd of Dnaliens rushed at them.

Ben morphed into Kraiter, grinning. "Kids, stay with Nana and Azmuth!" He ran at the horde with Kevin.

Gwen floated up and had her dad on a platform to shoot at a safe distance. As Carl had stayed back to stop any that got through, letting out some heavily repressed aggression - punching and kicking the aliens, smacking them back with his tail.

"Carl!" Frank called to his brother. "This things out of juice!"

"How is that?!" Carl snapped, punching and alien.

"I don't know, Mr. 'I rigged up the house to run on alien weapons power cores'!" Frank retorted.

"Do the glowy thing your mom could do!"

"I told you I can't!"

"Why is he giving middle child energy?" Kevin called to Ben.

"Because Sunny is our cousin so there was NO way Uncle Frank was Verdona's first kid." Ben said. "Matteo is the same, honestly."

"How do you keep all those names straight?" Gwen cut in, firing a pink power whip.

"You'll understand when you become a mother, don't worry about it." Ben said, encouragement in his voice. Just in time for the time out. "Oh nuts. Azmuth!"

"I'm currently working!" The Galvan yelled, trying to work on the bazooka. "This thing's circuits are destroyed! How was that even accomplished?!"

"Ooh, Carl! You're in trouble!" Frank taunted.

"Bill me!" Carl snapped, trying to get to Ben.

"You Tennyson's are a pain on my conscious!"

"Says the frog!" Carl and Frank snapped at the same time.

"That makes no sense." Kevin punched an alien away from Ben. "I see where you get it."

"Can it, Kevin!" Ben and Gwen snapped together.

"Tough crowd- whoa!" Kevin barely moved aisde, as Ben's kids all swarmed as one to blast a wall of snow and slush at some of the Dnaliens running at their mother, knocking them over.

"My babies!" Ben was excited, with proud tears in his eyes. Only to become worried when a shadow eclipsed them all.

"A Highbreed.." Gwen looked at her dad. "Is the bazooka ready?"

"It's unusable is what it is!" Azmuth was dumbfounded, hearing the panicked chittering as the Necrofriggians flew away from the looming shadow.

Ben and Kevin were getting the babies to fly away, but.. as usual-

"Kenny!" Ben looked back to the one sole baby Necrofriggian.

Who was flying at the tall alien as fast as his wings could carry his fat little baby body and chittering a war cry. Only to get smacked down to the floor, crying in pain and fear.

"No!" Ben took off running to get Kenny, watching in almost as the Highbreed raised his foot and brought it down - as a red energy shot past Ben and towards Kenny and the Highbreed.

The Highbreed felt his foot connect with something solid - stuck halfway to it's target. A red.. shield, which he kept trying to smash.

"It's okay, Kenny. Uncle Frank's got ya."

The little moth looked up to see a glowing red thing between him and the scary monster. It sounded like Uncle Frank, but the light from him felt warmer. And Kenny just chittered in happiness.

"Frrraaankah."

Frank smiled down before looking up when the shield broke.

"Dad!" Gwen grabbed him and Kenny with her powers, pulling them away from the fists that the Highbreed almost brought down on them.

"Krait! Use your telekinetic powers!" Azmuth called to Carl, jumping onto Sandra's shoulder.

"I never learned anything! Ben knows more than I do!" Carl yelled.

"Just look at the Highbreed and think of everything has ever made you angry."

Oh? It's that easy? Well, Carl turned to look at the Highbreed - and was coming up empty, as the Highbreed was using Kevin as a whack-a-mole mallet on the nearby crates.

"Hey, fish breath! Didn't Dad forget to pick you up from baseball practice on time and arrived 2 hours late? During a down pour?"

Carl suddenly remembered - and blasted the Highbreed with a dark green energy, into several walls and a large vat of some sort of green liquid. Kevin also went flying, forwards though, landing in a pile of unconcious Dnaliens.

"I'm good!"

Carl felt dizzy, panting as he fell to his knees. He knew anger was draining, but this? It was a whole new level.

"You did good, honey," Sandra was there, hugging him from the side. She rubbed his shoulder, smiling softly at him.

Carl smiled tiredly at her as he saw Gwen and Frank talking in excitement.

"Dad! You look great! I didn't know Anodites could be anything but pink!"

They all left the boat - Kevin giving some bad news.

"The Highbreed and Dnaliens left before I sunk it."

"Tsk, well, we should go." Frank said, having quickly figured out how to change his form back. Hmm, maybe it was just instinct?

"I have to agree," Ben said, now as Four Arms, holding about 4 sleeping baby moths in each arm with the two remaining ones were held by Gwen and Sandra respectively as Carl was talking to Azmuth.

"I can contruct a camouflage device for you." The Galvan offered.

The tired Uxorite hybrid nodded, "soun's great. Mm, have Ben give me the total, an' I'll pay you soon as-" he yawned. "Sorry."

Azmuth waved him off, "you will owe me nothing for it, your grandchildren are actually doing me a great service in uncluttering my lab, and I changed your form without your consent, so I owe you this." The Glavan waved a hand, and opened a portal to his lab. "I will return when I have the device complete."

The Tennyson clan returned to the Tennyson home.

Gwen took the guest room, Kevin slept on the floor of Ben's room and Frank took the couch.

"I'll head home tomorrow," Frank promised.

"It's fine, Frank." Carl stretched, tossing him an extra set of sleep clothes before leaving.

In Ben's room -

Ben set up his babies in the hammock system for them, kissing all of their cheeks and then going to his bed, tossing his extra pillow to Kevin for extra support.

"I'm fine with the one pillow," Kevin said to him.

Ben shrugged, "setting an example, Kevin."

"Right. The kids." Kevin shrugged. "Night."

The echoes of chitters greeted him.

"Night Kevin, night my babies."

The kids gave another chorus of chitters before bed.

The next morning brought about a gift - Matteo had snuck down to the living room to be with Frank. Found by Carl and Sandra when they went to make breakfast.

Frank held the baby moth close to him, protecting it.