That ticked off Rath. "Let me tell you something, baldy! Rath is nobody's pet! Rath is his own man."
The bald man glared at Rath angrily. "I'm not bald!" he yelled at Rath. "I'm Ikkaku Madarame and I'm shaven!"
"You look bald to me, Ikkaku Madarame," Rath said with a smirk. "You're so bald the sun was shining off your head and nearly blinded me."
The man called Ikkaku went ballistic. "That does it! This guy is mine, Yumichika!"
The shoulder haired man shrugged. "Fair enough," he said dramatically. "I'll deal with the kid here." He looked at Wonderweiss as he said this.
Leering, Ikkaku lunged forward to stab his spear into Rath. Unfortunately, Rath grabbed Ikkaku's spear and used it to throw Ikkaku down to the ground.
"Let me tell you something, baldy!" Rath yelled down. "Nobody threatens Rath with a twig!"
Ikkaku got up and looked at Rath. Spitting dirt out of his mouth, he grinned up at him. "Looks like I've got myself a fighter. This is gonna be good."
Rath pumped his fists. "Bring it on!"
Ikkaku laughed wildly as he took off into the sky, aiming straight toward Rath. Rath simply thought that Ikkaku was going to stab him again, so he merely waited for his opponent to get close enough.
But just as Ikkaku came within distance, the long spear split itself, revealing that it contained three different segments that allowed it to bend. A surprised Rath was caught up in it.
"Sorry, kitty," Ikkaku said. "But you're going down."
Rath sneered. "Whatever," he replied. Then he broke out of the binds, breaking the spear segments and pretty much breaking the spear itself.
Ikkaku's eyes got wide as Rath leaped forward, grabbed Ikkaku by the head and tossed him down to the ground again.
Yumichika, Hitsugaya, and the blonde haired woman all stared in shock. This tiger might not be an Arrancar, but he was beating Ikkaku like nothing. They couldn't even sense him putting any reiatsu in his blows. Was it all brute strength?
"I have to help him," Yumichika called. He was about to go at Rath, only for Wonderweiss to get in the way.
Yumichika glared at him.
"I've got him," the blonde woman said. She disappeared briefly, and then reappeared in front of Rath. It reminded him of Sonido.
"Rangiku Matsumoto," the woman said. "Lieutenant of Squad 10."
"Let me tell you something, Rangiku Matsumoto!" Rath yelled. "You looking so fucking hot, how did you maintain this figure. If you are not against the Arrancar, I have made you mine. What do you have against Arrancar anyway?"
Matsumoto froze, just as everyone else did, first he complimented her, and then said if she was not against the Arrancar, she should be with him.
"What is he talking about?" Ikkaku groaned from the ground.
"Aizen said you pick on the Arrancar just because they exist!" Rath yelled. "That is not cool!"
This left every single one of the Shinigami speechless. This guy actually thought the Arrancar were the good guys.
Yammy could see where this was going so he needed to do something fast. Aizen had told him to do everything to make sure that Ben thought the Shinigami were the bad guys here.
"Don't waste your time, kid," he called to Rath. "Those Shinigami are too stuck up for their own good."
This exchange interested Hitsugaya. From what he gathered, Aizen had convinced this tiger creature into believing that the Shinigami were the evil ones.
"Matsumoto!" he yelled to his lieutenant. "Take down that tiger but don't kill him. We'll take him to Soul Society for questioning."
Matsumoto nodded at her captain before looking back at Rath.
"Sorry about this," She said. She raised her blade. "Growl, Haineko!"
Rath raised an eyebrow as the sword suddenly transformed into what appeared to be a giant cloud of dust or ash.
"What are you gonna do with that, Rangiku Matsumoto?" Rath asked. "Gonna make Rath sneeze? Instead you should come fight in the bed with me."
Hearing this she became a little angry, it always be she bullied others, not others to her.
Rangiku swung her now bladeless hilt in Rath's direction. Much to his shock, the giant dust or ash cloud came right at him. He swung his fist out to punch it, only for the cloud to disperse around his fist and then lung at his stomach. He soon discovered that it wasn't ash or dust at all. It was a bunch of tiny blades that were swarming together to look like ash or dust. While Rath was one of Ben's most durable forms, he knew he needed a different form before he started to get sliced up. He reached for the Ultimatrix dial and transformed again.
"Bad ChromaStone!" he yelled after transforming. The ash was useless against his silicon body.
Matsumoto's eyes went wide. "What the…?" she managed to cry just as ChromaStone fired an energy blast at her. She dodged out of the way, but was still staring at ChromaStone.
And she wasn't the only one. The tiger creature they had all seen just transformed into some kind of purple rock creature.
"What…what is he?" Yumichika asked aloud before he received a punch from Wonderweiss.
"Sorry, but he's not the one you should be worrying about," Yammy said smugly. "Hey, Tennyson! Throw those two over here! I'm gonna fight them all at once."
"All at once?" ChromaStone cried. "Okay, that ego of yours really needs a reality check."
Yammy snarled at ChromStone. "I can handle them."
"I beat you all by myself," ChromaStone said. "There's no way you could beat three people at once."
This got all the Shinigami's attention. This rock creature was stronger than the Espada? Just how strong was he?"
"Well," Ben said as he studied Matsumoto. "Nice sexy body you have. Should I prick it?"
"No, better will be I should take you and bring you with me, and then I will taste you," He said, looking at her, and was just going to caught her.
A red wave of energy came out of nowhere and stopped him.
Shocked, ChromaStone and everyone else looked to see who it was.
Floating in the air was a man wearing some kind of clothing that looked only like Japanese clothing. A green and white striped hat was on the man's head and in his hand was some kind of thin sword.
"Looks like I made it just in time," the man said.
"Who are you?" Ben asked him.
"Sorry, I was a little late with the introductions," the man said. "Urahara Kisuke, owner of the Urahara Kisuke Shop, a little dime and nickel store. Feel free to come by later."
He looked like he was about to attack again, but that's when Wonderweiss appeared right behind him. His hand was reached out to grab Urahara's hat, but Urahara spun around to unleash a red energy wave at Wonderweiss.
Rather than see how that fight was going to turn out, ChromaStone was about to go and capture Matsumoto, when suddenly a wall of ice appeared in front of him. ChromaStone turned around to see Captain Hitsugaya floating in front of him.
"I don't know who or what you are," Hitsugaya said. "But you're nothing like them. Something is at work here and I think you're the key. I'm taking you back to Soul Society."
ChromaStone narrowed his eye at Hitsugaya. He couldn't afford to be taken away. He still had Harribel, Harribel's Fraccion. But most importantly, he still had Nel. He couldn't leave them. He wouldn't leave them.
"Sorry," ChromaStone replied. "But I can't go with you."
Hitsugaya frowned. "It wasn't an option. Bankai!"
ChromaStone's eye widened as he was blasted backwards when ice formed around Hitsugaya to create dragon features of ice to his body. He now had the wings, tail, and claws of a dragon.
"Sorry about this," Hitsugaya said. Then he lunged forward at ChromaStone.
ChromaStone reacted immediately. He knew one form that was too hot to handle. He touched the Ultimatrix symbol and transformed yet again.
"Bad NRG!" he yelled out.
Hitsugaya's eyes widened. First a tiger, then a golem, and now some kind of armor. What was this being? Deciding to act first and ask questions later, Hitsugaya unleashed a wave of coldness, encasing NRG in a boulder of ice.
"Sorry," he said. "But my Zanpakuto is the strongest of the ice and snow Zanpakuto."
He then looked up to see that the others had all been recaptured again, and Yammy was battling Urahara. The one who originally attacked Urahara was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, Hitsugaya flew over to Yammy, to freed his teammates, then used his powers to encase Yammy in a block of ice.
"Thank you, Taichou," Matsumoto said. "But what about the rock creature?"
"He's transformed again," Hitsugaya told her. "I froze him down below."
Yumichika looked down. "I don't think so," he replied.
Hitsugaya looked down. His eyes widened. NRG was standing there with his arms folded while looking up at Hitsugaya and the others.
Hitsugaya frowned. Somehow that creature had been able to escape his ice prison. But he had used so much power. And he hadn't even felt the creature use any reiatsu to free himself. What was going on here?
"We need to take him to Soul Society," Hitsugaya said. "Leave him to me."
He shot downward while NRG raised his fists for combat. Hitsugaya unleashed a wave of ice that encased half of NRG's body. Hitsugaya's victory was short lived when he saw NRG's armor start glowing red. The ice melted into a puddle at NRG's feet.