Time Tampering
Chapter 1
"This is how your past was?" Albedo chuckled and closely inspected the small human bundle in the crib. It didn't seem very threatening to do anything bad and was looking up at him with curiosity. The white haired boy slowly poked the child on the cheek, which startled him when it started giggling as if they were playing a game. He pulled his finger back and held it close, as if it had burned him. He shook his head amusingly. "I don't even recall why I was ever afraid of you."
In the small crib was an infant, barely even a month old. It sported a small amount of brown hair and had bright green eyes. It was wrapped up in a matching light green blanket, complementing his eyes. The infant managed to pull out of his arms from the blankets hold and pointed them towards Albedo, as if signalling him to pick him up.
He huffed and lifted up the baby from the bed, so that it was hanging by it's armpits. It giggled and clapped in pure entertainment. It's small fingers managed to latch around a couple strands of white hair, yanking it with as much force as it could. Albedo yelped and swore in pain, pulling his hair away and scowling in annoyance. "Human infants are indeed strange creatures."
The baby laughed if as agreeing.
He shrugged and pushed the baby farther away from him, staring at him with observant eyes. Once deeming the situation controlled, he put the baby in the crook of his arm and stroked its cheek gently. It once again squealed and Albedo smirked. "Maybe you can be assistance to me after all."
And in a blinding light, the two vanished from sight.
5 years later..
Albedo walked into the toddler's room, examining the small bed and toys littering his room. He shouldn't be surprised at how messy the room was. It, after all, was Benjamin.
"Benjamin!" He shouted, waiting for a response. A head popped up from a pile of clothes and he jumped up at the sight of Albedo.
"Albeedo!" The child grinned, jumping up and down. The child wasn't listless from night before, since he knew what today was. "It's my birf-day! Is thawt cayke for mee?" His chubby finger pointed to the cake in Albedo's hands, that he had nearly forgotten about.
"So it is." The Galvan nodded and placed the cake on the counter. "I know it is customary to get the aged person a gift and since your brain was unable to comprehend anything the last couple of years, I decided to get you a special gift." He clicked his watch and a spherical package appeared, looking very much alienish.
The child looked in wonder at the weirdly shaped present and cautiously pulled a hand out to touch it. Before he could get into close range of it, the package opened, revealing a strange watch with a symbol on it. The child awed for a moment before the watch jumped from the sphere onto his wrist and his first instinct was to panic.
He jumped up and fell onto his butt, staring at the device with panic. "Albeedo! What is dooing?"
"Relax, Benjamin. You know I'd never hurt you. This device is called the omnitrix and it is a very powerful device. In the future, you'll become a great hero if you gain some practice early on." Albedo held up his own wrist. "I have one too. See?"
The child relaxed, understanding what Albedo was trying to saw. He glanced at it warily but nodded. "What does doo?"
The alien-human kneeled down in front of him and he ruffled the child's head. He pointed to the omnitrix. "The omnitrix allows you to change yourself into any species at will. You can turn into any creature in it's catalog and gain all of it's powers. Like so."
He close an alien that wouldn't scar the boy, but would show him exactly what he meant. He dialed in a Petrosapien and grinned as he morphed into the exact alien, the boy's eyes widening.
When he finished, Ben smiled in amazement and clapped. "I wanna doo too!"
Albedo smirked. "Don't worry, you'll be able to turn into this very, very soon. But for now.. the training's only just begun."
12 years later..
"Gwen, your grandfather's outside! Don't leave him waiting for you forever!" Natalie called to her daughter upstairs. The orange haired girl rushed down the stairs and waved goodbye to her mother before dashing towards the familiar RV outside. Her grandpa was already inside, snacking on some strange alien food that he seemed to enjoy so much. When he acknowledged her presence, he waved the container of purple alien in her direction.
"Want some honey? When they're fresh, they're a delicacy." He grinned when she shook her head like always. He shrugged and finished up, before storing it on the counter.
"So any new missions I should know about?" She asked, plopping down in the dining seats.
Grandpa Max shrugged. "Not that I've heard of. We can go search around if you'd prefer and then head towards HQ and meet up with Kevin."
She smiled at the thought of her boyfriend and nodded, glancing over to the window. She saw her father walk out of their house with a worried and depressed expression, before hoping into his car and leaving. She frowned and turned to her grandfather. "Grandpa Max? Do you know what's up with my dad? He's been acting weird all day and he looked kinda stressed when he was leaving."
He paused and glanced at her with worry and surprise. Frank hadn't told her? "You mean to tell me that your parents never told you what happened a couple weeks after you were born?"
"No.." She frowned. "What should they have told me?"
Max sat across from her and rubbed his head. "It happened 17 years ago. You were probably only 3 weeks old and so was your cousin, Benjamin. He vanished one night and when Sandra went to go see him, he was gone. No trace. She called the cops and they couldn't find any leads. Neither could I. Sandra and Carl became heartbroken after that day, unable to believe that someone would sneak into their house and steal their 3 weeks child."
"Oh." Gwen mumbled, unable to believe she had another cousin she hadn't known about.
"Yeah, his full name was Benjamin Kirby Tennyson and he was born on the same day as you. He was born a bit premature but was fine after a couple weeks. He was almost as big as you were." Max chuckled but his expression dropped soon after. "I just want to know what kind of twisted man would steal a small baby from a family? That's just wrong."
She shook her head. "I.. I'm sorry. Why did nobody tell me? I've been going to Aunt Sandra's house for years and I never knew she had a son! No wonder she kept that room locked down the hall.. it's probably Benjamin's room."
"It's alright. I would think that your father wouldn't want to tell you so that you didn't do anything regrettable. He didn't want you to get depressed over something you couldn't control." He forced a smile. ".. So where do you want to go kiddo? Ice cream sound good?"
Gwen wasn't stupid to know that her grandpa felt uncomfortable talking about the subject. She could tell by the way his face fell every time he mentioned her cousin's name that it was heartbreaking. She nodded and watched sadly as he started up the car and got onto the road. He drove the entire time with his hands tightly clenched around the wheel, his back hunched in concentration.
She didn't want to upset her grandfather by talking about him so instead stared out the window, her happy mood replaced with a depressed one.
"Benjamin." Albedo crossed his arms and watched as the teen he knew crawled from his bed and rubbed his eyes.
"Huh?" He yawned and smiled at him. "What do you need?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to wake you. It is getting late you know." He frowned and Ben nodded, gathering the folded clothes from the floor. He slipped on his black pants and grey jacket, which he had grown up with since he was a child. He brushed back his long hair and glanced at the small Galvan.
"So what do you want me to do?" Ben asked, his expression bored.
Albedo waved his hand away. "You may do as you wish. You were excellent at practice yesterday with the omnitrix so consider this as a reward. I expect you back before 8 however. Understood?"
"Got you Albedo." He nodded and rushed off, excited to be free once again.
The Galvan on the other hand was celebrating as well. Not only had he succeeded with his plan on stealing Ben when he was little and morphing him into the most dangerous person out there; he had also taken the omnitrix from Azmuth, whom was unable to track it since Albedo had shut off the tracker. And to add to his luck, nobody was aware of their presence. Nobody knew Ben and nobody knew him. They were in the safe zone.. for now. But there was always that problem with the Time Walker, who was always known on fixing things. It was a miracle that Paradox hadn't arrived to somehow steal away Ben.
He shrugged. It was good to reward his excellent plan every once in a while. Ben had become a very good fighter, even better than Albedo had ever seen him in the other future. He was still very creative and crafty but with his newly acquired knowledge about environments and emergencies, he was prepared for anything to come his way.
He knew he shouldn't jinx it, but there was nothing else to ruin his plan. Not his stupid cousin, his grandfather, or any other associates. There wouldn't be anyone to ruin this perfect plan he had worked for so long. Everyone would pay even.. Benjamin himself.
Ben went out on rare occasions and those occasions had been growing more by the day. If he did really good during training, he was rewarded with some money and the day to do whatever he pleased. The last time he had been allowed to go whatever, was only 3 days ago.
He carelessly walked down the sidewalk, taking note of nearby pedestrians that passed his way. His eyes scanned the clearing for any policemen, which had been on his back the last couple of weeks for stealing. As long as he wasn't caught, everything was good for the taking.
He grinned. Albedo had taught him that a couple years ago. Good to know that it came in handy every once in a while.
A small sign caught his eyes and he smiled. Mr. Smoothy's sounded pretty good about now.. this wasn't a place he'd steal from, cause if he did, this place would be out of business in a mere couple of weeks. He liked this place especially, since when he was free, he'd dine on their smoothies for hours. Especially that Pineapple & Chocolate kind.
He walked inside and joined the line, pulling down his hood. His eyes scanned his sounding, happy that everything was fine for now. When it came his turn, he asked for his regular and soon left the premises as soon as he could. He joined the chaos around downtown and slurped down his smoothie.
He passed a couple of police and they glanced in his direction, whispering among themselves. When they realized something, they began following after him and he wasn't stupid to slow down. He hurried his pace and dashed into the alleyway, sprinting towards the end to lose them. Unfortunately they were smart enough to understand where he was headed and soon cornered him.
Ben clenched his teeth as he glared at the policemen, who held up their guns.
"Put your hands up! You're wanted for several burglaries costing up to $100,000 and destruction of private property. If you resist, we'll be forced to shoot." Once shouted, his gun pointed straight ahead at Ben's head.
He smiled and put his hands up. "Alright officers. You've caught me. Take me away."
Another officer made a move towards Ben, only for the teen's hands to light up pink and blast them away. They were thrown back a couple yards from the teen and he took that opportunity to dash out. He sprinted another way and ended up on a empty street. He gasped out and hunched over, trying to regain his breath.
A bright light flashed in the corner of his eye and his eyes widened in fear. The large vehicle managed to pull to a stop, inches from hitting him. He sighed in relief only for a window open up. "Do you need any help son?"
Ben frowned and glanced at the alleyway, hearing the cops shouting and coming closer. He nodded at the man. "Yes please!" A door opened up for him momentarily and he jumped in, closing the door. The RV zoomed forward, the cops suddenly appearing from the alleyway, looking furious.
He slumped and relaxed, once the coast was clear. His eyes glanced over towards the elder man, who studied him with suspicious eyes. "So, what's a teen like you running from the cops for?"
"Uh.." He stuttered uselessly.
The female beside him, looked him up and down. "We aren't stupid to know the cops were after you. You're just lucky we managed to pull up at the same time. So you'd better tell us or you're getting in more trouble."
Ben sighed. "Fine, I kinda stole a couple of things when I was on the streets. Sometimes it was food or just electronics. I stole too often and they've been on my backs for years. Stupid cops."
The male frowned. "That isn't something you should be doing. Stealing causes trouble."
"I had to." He countered back. "I have nobody taking care of me so it's just me on the streets. Survive on what I can."
"If it'll help, we'll give you some money so you won't steal anymore. But it won't be alot. Just enough to get you buy for a couple of weeks." He finished and parked the RV in an empty place. He turned around and faced the teen. He was probably only 17, around his granddaughter's age. He had shaggy brown hair and green eyes.. which reminded him alot of..
The man tensed up and held onto his chair, his eyes staring at Ben. Gwen was at his side, supporting him. She glanced at him with worry. "Grandpa, are you okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah.. I'm fine. You.. You remind me alot of my missing grandson.. when he was a baby."
"Oh." Ben managed to say as he glanced at them with confusion. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine." The man waved away and brought out his hand. "My name's Max and this is Gwen."
He nodded. "My name's Neb."
"Neb?" Gwen frowned. "That's a wie-"
"Yeah, I know it's a weird name. Everyone tells me that." Ben rolled his eyes.
"Well Neb." Max interrupted. "I'll go to the bank and get you some money if you want."
"No that's not necessary. You saving me is enough." He said, opening up the door. "I won't promise you that I won't steal anything." And then he dashed out of the car into a nearby alleyway.
Max scratched his head and glanced over to Gwen. "That kid seems familiar. Don't you think?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we've seen him on the streets before. He seemed like he's been alone for a while."
"I don't know.. he looked alot like Sandra's missing son.." He muttered before walking towards towards the front of the RV. He clicked a set of controls before a holographic projection of Neb appeared, frozen in place. Gwen awed in amazement as he clicked more buttons and image seemed to expand, so that his fingerprint was clearly identifiable. Max grinned and clicked another button. Another fingerprint was beside Neb's looking not as fine as his.
"What's going on?" Gwen asked, studying the fingerprints.
He pointed to the right one. "That one's Neb's and the other is baby Benjamin's. If they're alike, then they should match up."
She lit up. "That's genius! Good thinking."
Max nodded in agreement and watched as the two fingerprints combined to form one. If it was truly Ben, then it would identical, like one image. And just as they merged, his expression dropped.
They weren't the same.
He.. He had been so excited to finally embrace his little grandson only to realize that Neb wasn't related to them. Neb had an entirely different fingerprint than the other.
"No.." Max shook his head in disbelief. He thought he had cracked the code. Finally could reunite his family once again with Ben back home. But unfortunately no. That wouldn't be happening. He slammed down his fist on the console. "I thought I had it!"
Gwen sighed and patted her grandpa. "It's alright. We'll find Ben. I promise."
"I.. I just miss him so much. Without him, our family's broken." He shook his head and sat down in the drivers seat. He rubbed his head and she patted his back, trying her best to comfort him. "Without Ben.. Sandra and Carl won't be the same. They've been so scared about everything ever since then and just are afraid that someone else would take another part of our family. They're frightened."
"But it happened 17 years ago." She mumbled.
"They missed all the good things about childhood. Seeing him go from a small baby in a crib to a full toddler running around and annoying them. They missed his first birthday and missed him going through puberty. They missed everything." Max sighed. "They only managed to see bits and pieces of your childhood. They were afraid and saddened to see Frank's daughter actually go through everything. I don't blame them."
She sighed, slightly understanding and slumped in her seat. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be.. Let's go see if Sandra and Carl will let you in Benjamin's room." He forced a tight smile. Gwen nodded and watched as the car churn forwards onto the street.
Ben watched as the RV stood in the parking for a couple of minutes before buzzing to life and heading down the street. His eyes watched them carefully before glancing at the sky. It was only noon probably and he had a couple more hours before he had to return back to Albedo.
He felt.. an attachment with them. As if he knew them before.. Yeah right. He probably saw them down the street one time. He usually went out regularly when he was allowed too.
He shrugged and walked down the alleyway before remembering what he was doing before he got chased by the cops. Swearing, he had dropped his smoothie when they had dashed after him. Great, he had to go buy another one! Huffed in anger and blended back into the crowd.
When he arrived back at Mr. Smoothies, he was just about to join into the line until his omnitrix beeped.
"Change of plans Benjamin. I've got something very important to do and it involves your help." Albedo said over the watch. "Report back here in 5 minutes."
The teen nodded to himself and sighed at the smoothie joint before rushing off towards home.
"Alert, alert!" The RV's emergency radio alerted. "Attack on Plumber HQ! Sector breach!"
Max glanced over to Gwen, who smiled. "Crime doesn't stop, does it?"
"Afraid not. Sorry, we can check out Ben's room afterwards. Sound good?" She nodded and held on tight to her seat as her grandfather spun the RV around, towards the signal.
When they reached, they parked in the garage and got out. Gwen's hands lit up with energy and Max pulled out a mini blaster from his back pocket. They sprinted to the source of the fight and examined what was happening.
Many aliens were attacking the Plumbers, almost an equal battle. Gwen had never seen some of these aliens before and watched as Magister Patelliday arrived. He panted, obviously out of breath. "What took so long!? These guys have been destroying and attacking us for the last 10 minutes!"
"Sorry." Max apologized and glanced at the fight. "Who's attacking? This obviously can't be a disorganized fight. Someone's after something here."
"But what?" Patelliday finished.
Gwen glanced up at the control tower and watched as a shadow appeared in the corner. She frowned. "Someone's up in the control tower."
"Do you think it's the master minds behind this attack?" He asked.
Max nodded. "Probably."
She stood up. "I'm going to investigate. If you guys gain control down here, send some back up." She didn't bother to see her grandpa's response as she bolted up the stairs to the tower.
When she reached the door, she saw that it had been blasted off it's platform. The door hung torn inside, completely maimed by whom ever did it.
"Where is it?" A voice growled. "He said it would be here."
Gwen frowned and burst in, her hands lit up with mana. "Hands up!" The person who was looking through the computers stopped and turned around. Her eyes widened and she backed up. "No way, you're that kid we saved from the cops earlier! What are you doing here?"
Neb looked uninterested and yawned. "There's alot of things that could explain why I'm here, but I prefer not to give any reason, knowing it may have some use against me." He stood up and smiled cheekly. "Now you could be a great help by telling me where all your Plumber files are and I'll leave this place alone. Deal?"
She huffed. "No way. I don't care who you are. You're going down!" She blasted energy towards him, which was easily absorbed by him. Her eyes widened in surprise and she backed up.
"What, you surprised that I could absorb your mana?" He grinned and walked up to her. "There's alot of things you don't know about me so you shouldn't probably be assuming anything."
Gwen threw a couple more blasts at him, only for them to be deflected by a shield. She could feel a familiarity from his shield and she shook her head. "No way, you're an Anodite."
"As you are." He chuckled. "You sure are quite slow at this for an Anodite of your age. You should be as powerful asme.. unless you didn't start at my age."
Neb threw bolts of energy back at her, which she was unable to defend against. It left her completely vulnerable to him against the wall she was pinned against and she knew it was useless to even try.
"Now, if you could help me." He asked nicely. "Or I might just have to do something out of my nature."
"Get away from my granddaughter!" A green blast shot him to the other end of the room, successfully disabling the mana ties around her body. She smiled over to Max and lit up her hands.
Neb sighed. "This is getting annoying. Tell me the information I seek or perish with the others below."
"Never." They both concurred and rushed towards him.
The teen felt outnumbered and blocked out half the room with a large wall made of mana. Neb turned around and returned to the computer. "If you don't want to help me, then I'll do it myself."
Gwen took the time to try the best she could do to break through the teen's defenses, only to fail at every turn. The wall was just to strong for someone like her.
Eventually Neb stood up, with a flashdrive in his fingers. "Thanks for the lack of help you both gave me. I don't appreciate it and consider this a warning. If you cross my path again, you'd better be lucky to make it alive next time."
He grinned and vanished in the blink of an eye.
The wall disappeared shortly after and Max rushed to the computer. He growled. "He copied all of our Plumber files on every single agent. But the question is why he wants to know about us."
Gwen sighed. "He knows more about the Plumbers than I thought. He's an Anodite too!"
"I saw." He nodded. "I just hope another attack like this won't happen in the future."
Ben reappeared back at home, with Albedo already cooking dinner. The white haired teen grinned and ruffled the his hair. "Good job, Ben. You did better than I had imagined. Now I know you can handle more.. augment items."
"Like?" He raised a brow.
"How about an real invasion? But first we'll have to build to that. With the files we have, we can slowly plot our attack and then we'll strike. We'll take over Bellwood then the entire world." Albedo smirked.
"What about Mr. Smoothy's?" Ben asked dumbly.
He chuckled. "We'll save those from our wrath. You can have as many smoothies as you'd like when we're done."
"How's everyone doing?" Max asked Patelliday.
The fish alien sighed. "We've taken immense damage but nothing we can't pull through from. The others we were fighting left so suddenly, they just all decided to retreat. Though I'd like to know why whoever that was broke in to take files."
"Maybe they're trying to find someone." Gwen interrupted.
"Or plan for it." A new voice interrupted. A blue portal appeared from behind Gwen, appearing a strange man in punk clothing. He had a metal looking arm and a staff, along with several other accessories. "Sorry to interrupt your chat but I have urgent matters to press on to. My name's Professor Paradox and you both," glancing at Gwen and Max, "are deep into the war then I had anticipated."
"War? What war?" Gwen asked.
"Something for another time. I understand you've just passed the first threat of the war with the boy upstairs." He concurred. "There will be several more attacks just like that one, more threatening than the last. That boy holds an immense display of power, enough to possibly take over the universe if allowed. I know this is alot for you both to consume but I give you this warning: Things that seem entirely opposite, can have unusual familiarity." He smiled. "Ta." A flash of light and he was gone.
She glanced at her grandpa. "That was.. weird. Who was he?"
"A time travel, that we should probably listen to. What do you think he meant by 'things that seem entirely opposite, can have unusual familiarity?'" Max asked, rubbing his chin.
"I don't know." She replied back. "But we probably shouldn't worry about it too much. We need to find Neb."
He nodded. "I trust that you'll use something from upstairs to track him, correct?"
Gwen smiled. "That's my best bet of tracking his whereabouts. Until then, we just have to prepared for any more attacks."
He grinned confidently and headed off to check the other Plumbers. Gwen sighed and glanced up at the large tower before making a series of steps leading there. It didn't take too long to reach the top and when she glanced down at the damage, she was shocked. Most of the ground floor had been blasted into nothing, ruining expensive consoles, screens and etc. It looked worse than she had thought.
She stepped back into the broken window, that Neb had broken trying to attack her. She headed towards the console, hoping that would have something traceable. But that unfortunately was useless, since most of it was technology and that was her weakness. Huffing that there wasn't anything to track him, she looked down and froze.
There was a small puddle of dried crusty blood on the ground. It had been recently, since it was still wet looking. Taking it as her only chance to find him, she cupped around the blood, sure not to touch it and began to try and track whom ever it had been.
A second later she grinned. "Gotcha."
A pink portal appeared in the distance and Gwen jumped out. It closed after her and she looked up at her location. She was in the Bellwood Park.. weird.. why would Neb be here?
"Looking for something?"
She jumped back, instinctively lighting her hands up with mana. She scowled at the familiar face. "You. Why am I not surprised?"
Neb smirked and jumped down from the tree he sat in and shrugged. "I don't know, especially since you're the person that was searching for me. What do you want? Another rematch?"
She growled. "No! I want those files back and I want to know why you stole them in the first place. You have no reason for intruding into Plumber HQ without an explanation."
He rolled his eyes. "Like you can do anything against me, Gwen. You've already tried your offensive tactics against me and you couldn't penetrate my shield. What Anodite can't break through a simple shield?" He felt one of her nerves snap as she failed to respond. "Like I thought."
"I thought I was the only Anodite on earth." She mumbled out.
Neb snorted. "You thought you were the only Anodite on the entire earth? You seriously are a child. Is that why you think you're so special? Cause you were the first to discover the power? Do you even know of the species you are?" His hands lit up pink. "I was only 6 when I started learning about my Anodite heritage. I have 11 years in experience and have mastered nearly all of the basic powers of a regular Anodite."
"Basic?"
"There are different complexities of powers. Making shields, absorbing mana, and teleporting are small compared to what you can ultimately accomplish. There's so many powers to learn and it takes at least 70 years to master all of that." He explained. "But I'm progressing far beyond average. It may only take me a couple more decades before I'm recognized as a full Anodite." He chuckled. "Maybe I might even lose my skin. How cool is that?"
"Full of amazement." Gwen muttered sarcastically. "Now what do you want with those files?"
"Me? Nothing." He admitted with a small crook in his smile. "My guardian? That's another thing."
"Who is he? What are you both planning?"
Neb shook his head. "So many questions, so little time. If you really want to know something, you should really try and improve your Anodite powers. They need alot of work." He flashed his signature little grin and disappeared in a flash of light.
Gwen slumped, knowing she wasn't going to get any answers. If he was able to know she was coming, there was no telling what else he knew how to do. How could she compete with another Anodite who was years ahead of her? It was nearly impossible to achieve.
"I guess I better go check out Grandpa." She mumbled and teleported away.
Completely sorry for this SUPER late update. I've been super busy and I've been getting involved with other things. I have several plots cooked up in my mind and have tried to write them out as best as I could. There will be more coming soon!
~Tortoro15