Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
(A/N: This fic is a sequel to my first Ben 10 story "Thorns". I do recommend reading that one first as they both take place along a fanon AU and are a mix of several different series canons. It will make much more sense to you if you read them in order. However, each story is also its own self-contained adventure -rather like episodes in a series. So you can still pick and choose ones to read and -hopefully- not be too confused. Anyway, you have been warned. Enjoy!)
Roots
Chapter One: Pardon
Having Kevin back from the Null Void and living with the family was an adjustment.
Of course, Devlin had to begrudgingly admit, any man that Mom chose to let move in with them would have been an adjustment no matter what. But Kevin was a different kind of adjustment because there was a history to it.
It was like all the adults of the family, Mom, Kevin, and Uncle Ben -heck, even Grandpa!- were picking up some daily routine right where they left it off sixteen years ago with only the setting of that routine changed. That was all well and good for them. But neither Devlin or Kenny were alive when this routine was established and practiced, and so while it all seemed so natural, and perfect, and right to the grown ups, it was like throwing a wrench wrapped in C-4 into the finely tuned lives of the children.
Devlin sighed and for the third morning in a row, gave up on his mother showing up for their pre-breakfast martial arts practice.
He stood from where he'd been sitting in the lotus position (attempting and failing at a meditation) and sulkingly exited the gym. He stomped through the residential floor to his mother's bedroom door and banged on it three times to make sure he was heard over the sounds of… grown-up things going on on the other side. There was a yelp of surprise, then the sound of something heavy tumbling to the floor and a very male groan of discomfort and some choice words about exactly which part of his anatomy was unhappy. Devlin tried to ignore what he heard.
"So I guess karate just isn't something we do anymore!" He shouted through the door. Then, not really knowing what kind of reaction he even wanted, Devlin turned and stomped away before either of his parents could open the door to talk to him. He did not need to see either his mother or Kevin… like that.
He stormed to the kitchen and slumped down in a chair at the table. "Un-kriffin'-believable!"
Grandpa Max (technically Great-Grandpa Max) set a plate of whole-wheat toast slathered with kessle butter and a fried yhetti egg on top. Normally, Devlin -much like the rest of the family- didn't touch Grandpa's bizarre food. But this morning he was just to irritated to care how gross it looked. He picked up the terrestrial bread topped with alien butter and egg, closed his eyes and took a large, angry bite out of it. Chewed. Swallowed. Paused to look at what he'd just eaten. Shrugged. Took a second bite. It really wasn't all that terrible after all.
Grandpa set a glass of blue-tinted tattooine milk next to the plate and Devlin gulped that down too. Maybe alien food wasn't as nasty as it sounded.
Or maybe he was just so pissed off that he didn't notice how awful it really was.
Devlin cleaned his plate and drained his glass before Grandpa finally sat down at the table and spoke.
"They haven't seen each other in sixteen years." He said, a knowing smile crossing his face. Devlin hadn't said what was bothering him. But then, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. "This is like a second honeymoon for them. They'll calm down eventually."
"They can't have a 'second honeymoon' if they never had a first honeymoon to begin with. My mom and Kevin Levin were never married!" Devlin reminded his great grandfather. "Am I the only one who even remembers that? They were never married!"
"Well, I know that's not me you're yelling about." Uncle Ben staggered in yawning. He was fully dressed in his usual cargo pants and white and black shirt. But that was about the only indicator that he might be up for the day. The moment Ben sat down at the kitchen table, his eyes fell closed, his cheek fell onto his hand, and he began to snore. Uncle Ben might be up, but he was not awake.
Grandpa just shook his head at his grandson's antics and turned his attention back to the elder of his two great-grandsons. "Look, this is a big change for you. The fact that he's your real father back from the Null Void not withstanding, your mother has never had one of her men living here before. This is a big deal. For everyone. Of course its gonna disrupt things around here for a while. Some of those disruptions might never go away, but for the most part, in another week, maybe two, things will go back to normal and it will feel like Kevin's always been here. The family might even be better for it. You might be better for it."
Devlin looked skeptical.
"Your father has started lessons with you on matter absorption, hasn't he?"
"Yes…" Devlin did have to admit that was one good thing that came from Kevin living with them now. Before his convict (soon to be ex-con) father came to live with them, Devlin was unable to absorb matter. When they decided not to throw him back in the Null Void, Kevin promised to teach Devlin how to absorb matter. They had two lessons so far. Devlin still couldn't absorb matter, but he was sort of starting to form an idea of how it was supposed to work.
"So, you see, its not all bad." Max smiled. "Just a little different from before."
Devlin was all ready to start feeling better about this arrangement. Yeah, it was different from what he was used to. Yeah, it changed his entire routine around. Yeah, it would take time for him to adjust to living with his father for the first time since he was a couple of weeks old. But he would get used to it, and he would be better for it. After all, he was the one who made the decision not to send Kevin back. Because Devlin always had wanted to know his father. Now he had that chance.
Then Kevin and Mom shambled into the kitchen. Wearing mismatched house robes, smelling of sweat and… other things, their hair all messed up, and looking more exhausted than when they went to bed the previous night. More exhausted, but very, very awake and happy. Very happy.
"Gatorade." Kevin groaned, making a B-line for the refrigerator. "I need Gatorade."
Mom just smiled, flopping down in a vacant chair. "Grab me one too!" Then she turned to her son. Attempting to comb her fingers through her tangled mess of vibrant red hair she asked Devlin, "What did you need this morning?"
"Yeah, what was the emergency?" Kevin came back to the table with two bottles of Gatorade and sat down next to Gwen.
Devlin glared at them both. Deciding that there was no way in heck he was ever going to get used to living like this. It wasn't that his evil, degenerate, ex-con, reformed villain father was occupying the same residence. But he was also taking Devlin's mother away from him. Making her forget about morning karate practice so that he could have his vile and fiendish way with her instead! No. There was no kriffing way Devlin could get used to this.
"Nothing." The boy growled. "There's nothing wrong."
"Rabbits…" Uncle Ben muttered in his sleep as he began to drool on the breakfast table.
There was a beat of silence.
Filled only by the sound of Grandpa frying normal terrestrial bacon and eggs. When these were done, he set two plates down in front of Kevin and Gwen.
"Normal food, Max? That's amazing!" Kevin dug in like he hadn't eaten real food in years. Which, considering that Devlin knew exactly what they fed to inmates in Incarceration, that was probably true. Three days of eating good home cooked meals wasn't nearly long enough to start taking it for granted again.
"Slow down or you'll make yourself sick." Gwen chided him. She took a bite of her own breakfast and several sips of Gatorade before clearing her throat. A sign that meant it was time to stop playing around and get down to business. "Alright, everyone, today is Kevin's Presidential Pardon, so lets go over the schedule one more time."
When they collectively decided not to send Kevin back to the Null Void, they had to quickly come up with a plan for keeping him here, while still keeping themselves clear of any charges for aiding and abetting or what have you. They kicked around ideas of changing his identity, having him take his old car and go on the run, renegotiate for a house arrest instead of life in the Null, etc. Finally, they decided on convincing Argit to give Kevin a Presidential Pardon. As President of Earth, it was well within Argit's power to do so.
The President of Earth, like every president before him, has the unique ability to override the justice system, release anyone he chooses from paying a fine, and return a person to the state of innocence he had before he ever committed a crime. The president isn't required to explain or justify his actions to Congress or anyone else for that power to pardon is left solely to the discretion of the president, and cannot be reviewed or overturned by any of the other branches of government.
The one and only draw back to this would be that Kevin would only be forgiven of crimes he committed either on Earth or against the Earth. It would not wipe away everything else he did everywhere else he went during his mad quest to absorb a Celestialsapien, over the course of which he absorbed the powers of 11,000 aliens earning himself the handle 'Kevin 11,000'.
Luckily, Earth did not have an extradition treaty. So, as long as Kevin stayed on Earth, that wouldn't be a problem.
"I'm not going." Ben muttered into the table cloth. "I'm not gonna show up without a date."
Uncle Ben had this idea in his head that Ben 10,000 couldn't show up to large public functions without a woman on his arm. His reasoning was long and convoluted. But, basically, it boiled down to, he just couldn't stand the thought of one of his ex-wives seeing him in the news unaccompanied and thinking that they were doing better than he was. 'Winning the break-up' was what he called it. Ben couldn't stand the idea that either of his ex-wives had won the break up (and by extension, that he had lost -Ben 10,000 did not lose).
"This isn't about you, Ben." Gwen reminded him.
"Besides, even if you did have a date, you'd lose her again before the end of the night." Kevin added. "You never could hold onto a woman."
This was true. His two divorces was evidence enough of that.
"Ben, we RSVP'd six people." Gwen was not having any of their banter today. "They have reserved six seats for us at the Pardon ceremony. You will be coming and if you can't find a date in the next five hours, then Grandpa will take the sixth seat."
Devlin was still annoyed with his parents for neglecting him this morning in favor of having gross sticky grown-up sex. But, Devlin was also a bit of a know-it-all and so he found himself adding, "Besides, it would be a good show of solidarity for Ben 10,000 to be at Kevin 11,000's Pardon Ceremony. If 10-K trusts 11-K, then other people can trust him too."
"That's exactly right." His mother nodded.
Kevin only smiled. He loved that his kid was as clever as his mother. But then again, Kevin always knew any kid that came from Gwen couldn't be anything less than spectacular. But it still never failed to bring a smile to his face when Devlin displayed just how phenomenal he really was. Maybe he was viewing the boy through metaphorical rose-colored glasses that prevented him from seeing any of the boy's flaws, or maybe he was just viewing any average intelligence as incredible because that's was what he imagined the boy to be. But as far as Kevin was concerned, his son was a shining pillar of perfection. Unlike Ben's kid, who was nice and all. Kevin didn't dislike him, he just had no compelling feelings about Kenny one way or another.
"And on the subject of public perceptions, Devlin, I'm gonna need you and Kenny to be on your absolute best behaviors." Gwen continued.
"I'm always on my best behavior!" Devlin was politely insulted.
Grandpa snorted over the stove at that. "Christmas two years ago. The Eggnog Debacle of '31."
Devlin quickly shut his mouth and tried to draw as little attention to himself as possible.
"What's the Eggnog Debacle of '31?" Kevin asked. He was still trapped in the Null at the time and would have missed it. In fact, Kevin was beginning to realize that he missed all of his son's antics and misadventures.
"Nothing!" Devlin said quickly.
Ben perked up, finally awake and glad that this particular fiasco didn't feature his own son as the mastermind. "Oh, it wasn't nothing. Come on, Devlin, don't be modest. Not many fourteen-year-olds can figure out how to distill pure alcohol after only a few high school level chemistry classes." Then, turning to Kevin, Ben narrated. "Your boy here, found a way to distill pure alcohol -and I mean 100% alcohol by volume, one-hundred percent- then, he ropes my kid into spiking the eggnog at my Christmas party with it." A pause. "Emily! I should call Emily!"
And Ben bolted to his feet and dashed from the kitchen -presumably to find his cell phone.
Gwen just shook her head. Ben obviously didn't remember what Emily did to him after that drunken kiss. Gwen herself was a little hazy on the details, but it somehow ended with Emily leaving Ben alone on the roof -naked. Ugh. That had not been a fun night.
Kevin looked thoughtful. "If you could distill pure alcohol, I wouldn't have just given it away like that." He was saying, more to himself than to Devlin. "There's actually a number of lower-end space ships that run off alcohol. I would have looked up the most recent market prices and compared them to the cost of production. There might have been a profit to be made there, Devlin."
Devlin made a face of displeasure. "Well, obviously, you and I don't think the same. Besides, Uncle Ben can choose to believe whatever he wants, but all I did was make the stuff. It was Kenny's idea to put it in the eggnog."
"Which brings us back to me needing the both of you to behave yourselves." Gwen concluded, hoping that was the end of the conversation. "Where is Kenny anyway?"
Gwen, Devlin, and Grandpa all looked around the kitchen as if suddenly noticing that someone was missing. All the chairs had been filled when Ben was in the kitchen and so it didn't feel like anyone was absent.
"Devlin, don't you usually wake him up?" Max asked.
"I drag him out of bed right after karate practice, but-" a pointed glare at his parents "-I didn't have karate practice this morning." Or any morning since Kevin became a seemingly permanent fixture in their home. "I'll go get him now."
Just as Devlin walked out, Ben walked back in and slumped back down in his chair, tossing his phone on the table in defeat. "Emily told me to go to hell."
And Kevin did not snort in derision. He could have told Benji that was gonna happen. True, he had been absent from their lives for sixteen years, and sure a lot could have changed in that time, but Gwen's friend Emily was too clever, independent, and intelligent to accept Ben's invitation. But then, really, who would say yes to an invitation to an event that was going to happen in only another five hours?
If anyone was going to comment, they didn't get a chance to, as the sound of an air-horn shook the very walls around them.
The first morning Kevin spent with Gwen, he was so startled by Devlin's method of waking his cousin that he summersaulted out of bed, reached for the first metal object he could find, absorbed the brass of the bedpost, and morphed his arm into a mace before Gwen calmed him down and explained what was happening. It wasn't a prison riot. It wasn't a break-in or break-out. A fire. A chemical spill. A flood. A monster attack. Etc. It was just one teenager waking another.
Today was the third morning Kevin spent with the family and he was finally starting to get used to it.
And it was kind of cruel in a mundane and harmless sort of way that Kevin could appreciate. He approved of Devlin's methods. If he was tasked with waken Tennyson every morning, Kevin imagined himself employing a similar method.
The boys appeared in the kitchen shortly after everyone's hearing returned to normal -Kenny still in his pajamas.
"…but its Friday." The younger boy was muttering. "Why are you still in your karate gi? Where's you book? You always have a book at breakfast. Everything's wrong. Its like I'm trapped in an episode of the Scary Door." He paused and looked down at Kevin as if not quite understanding what he was seeing. Then looked up at everyone else in the kitchen, incomprehension written all over this face. "He's in my spot."
"Oh, for the love of…" Ben stood from where he was sitting on the opposite side of the table. "Here, Kenny, take my seat. I need to make some calls anyway."
Kenny flopped down, still in his early morning haze. "The stove's on the wrong side. Everything's wrong."
…
The Pardon Ceremony was long and boring.
It was held in the general assembly building of what used to be the United Nations Headquarters. After all the countries of Earth dissolved their borders and became one unified planetary nation, there then arose the questions of where exactly to place the capital. Geneva was suggested as a possible location. Zurich was another. Beijing. Moscow, Paris, London. Seoul. Finally they decided on repurposing the UN building in New York.
The decision made sense. It was already set up to house political leaders and representatives as well as run governments. There was already a surplus of linguists and translators in residence there. It was the perfect logical choice.
To spite the fact that the assembly building had almost two-thousand seats, it looked like the whole hall was packed. Everyone wanted to come see what exactly would happen at Kevin 11,000's Pardon. The family sat in the front row, closest to the platform.
Argit delivered a speech about crimes of passions, subjective morality, and bad decisions made by good people, about forgiveness and second chances and turning over a new leaf. It was long-winded and drawn-out. Really, it felt more like a saturday morning cartoon wrap-up. Finally, when that was over, Kevin got up to actually receive his pardon. That part of the ceremony was remarkably short.
Finally, it was over and they were free to go.
An informal dinner and social function was held in the gardens.
Service staff made circuits of the crowd carrying trays of hors d'oeuvres and flutes of champaign. One would think it was a reception ball for a foreign dignitary, and not an after party for the President erasing the crimes of one of the most feared, hated, and infamous terrorists in the galaxy.
Kevin, Gwen, Ben and Max sipped champaign while the boys held glasses of water.
"So, I still haven't heard the story of how my buddy Argit became president of a planet." Kevin commented.
The crowd parted and the very Argit approached, flanked by two of his Techadon robots. He offered a lopsided grin. "Come on, Kev, are you really all that surprised?"
It was a fair question. After all the con's they pulled together over the years, was it really all that surprising that he managed to con his way into office? Weren't all politicians crooks anyway? No. It wasn't surprising at all. Argit was just following the natural order of things. Kevin was just curious exactly how it came about. The details.
"Not all that surprised." He returned the lopsided grin with one of his own.
He would have said more -perhaps made a not quite so charming comment about Argit's weight- but he was suddenly and abruptly shoved to the side by an excited Kenny who pounced happily on the president. "Uncle Argit!"
"Oof!" Argit took a couple steps back to avoid falling over completely. He ruffled the kid's hair affectionately. "Hi, Kenny, still a little delinquent in training, I see."
Devlin was not far behind and he pulled his cousin off the chief of state before his public display of affection caused a scene. "For the love of crap. You're not ten-years-old anymore. Hi, Uncle Argit."
"Devlin." Argit brushed his suit. "Still Kenny's straight-man, I see." Then to Kevin. "I never would have imagined -not in a million years or eleven parallel universes- that your son would be the straight-man, Kev."
Kevin wouldn't have imagined it either and he still wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. But then, he supposed, that was what happens when Gwen raises a kid alone without his disreputable influence. The kid turns out honest, law abiding, good. (Also, just a little uptight and high strung.)
The kid in question looked from one adult to the other. "You say that like its a bad thing."
"Oh, no! Not at all!" Argit put an arm around Devlin (or at least, as close to around him as their hight difference would allow). "In fact, the Straight Man is an essential part of many cons. I remember this one time your dad and I-"
"Argit." Kevin cut him off with a dangerous look. As fun as it might be to reminisce about their past exploits, his relationship with his son was still indistinct and undefined. He knew Devlin did not approve of his past… occupations, and so he wasn't sure whether or not it would hinder their father-son development for Devlin to be regaled with tales of his father's less than reputable misadventures.
"Then again, it was a boring job anyway. Excuse me, I see one of my constituents." He brushed past them, the Techadons silently following him like clonking, cumbersome sentinels.
"Aw… I wanted to hear the story." Kenny whined. "Uncle Argit has the best stories. There was this one time, he and a partner of his were selling weapons to both sides of this war. They were making a lot of money from it too. But then Uncle Argit had a change of heart and thought they should make peace -cause it was the right thing to do. So he gave them a common enemy by blowing up a statue of their prophet and blaming it on someone else who happened to be on the planet at the same time. The two sides united against him instead and now they're one people. That's how Uncle Argit saved the people of Zabin. …That's also why the people of Zabin hate my dad."
"That's not what happened!" Kevin exclaimed before he could stop himself. It was true that he, Argit, Ben and Gwen had gone to a war-torn planet after receiving a little girl's call for aid, and yes, he and Argit did run the scam of selling identical weapons to both sides, and yes, a statue was destroyed, and yes, the people of that world united against Ben. But Argit being an altruistic hero and ending the con for moralistic reasons, and trying to stop the war? No. Just no. Nope, nope, nope.
Devlin raised one suspicious eyebrow. "Let me guess, you would know that because you were the partner who was running the arms scam. Right? I'm right, aren't I."
Was that judgment in the kid's voice? Yup. That was definitely judgment. "It doesn't matter." Kevin tried to sound casual. "It was so long ago. Heck! I was your age back then!"
"I've never broken the law, manipulated, or taken advantage of people." Devlin reminded him.
It was at that point in the conversation that Gwen excused herself from the foreign dignitary she was talking to and glided over to their conversation. "I hope you boys are playing nice."
"He scared Uncle Argit away." Kenny pointed to Kevin.
While at the exact same time, Devlin demanded, "Did you know he was selling weapons to both sides of the Zabinean Civil War?"
For half a second Gwen looked exasperated, but it quickly morphed into just plain annoyance, before settling on stern maternal command. "You two, this is not like the parities we host at the Headquarters. You can't just sit with Argit for hours and listen to him embellish stories that might or might not be true. And if you're going to get into a moral debate with someone you have to keep it shallow and superficial. Nobody here really cares if Kevin deserved the Pardon or not, all they care about is how supporting it might further their careers. Everyone here is one version or another of a grifter, thief, or con artist."
That's politics. Gwen couldn't wait to get home.
Kenny looked disappointed. Devlin looked put in his place.
"Now why don't you two open up negotiations with the buffet table." She linked arms with Kevin. "I'll babysit this one for a while."
They boys went to get snacks. Gwen steered Kevin to the edge of the party.
They got maybe six feet before someone turned around and flagged them down.
"Ducking out already?" Another couple turned around and Kevin recognized them as Helen and Manny.
Two decades ago they had been Plumbers' Helpers and worked with Kevin, Gwen and Ben on several occasions. When Devlin was born and Kevin went on his quest (read: destructive rampage) across the universe to find a way to cure his son of the mutant form Kevin passed to him, they threw their lot in with Ben and helped try to bring him down. They weren't very successful and Kevin might have tried to absorb one or two of them (or all four), but they couldn't still be mad about that, right? It was sixteen years ago after all. And it wasn't like it was the first time Kevin had ever gone nutty and tried to absorb them. It should be water under the bridge. Or, at least water near a bridge.
"Oh, hi, guys… I haven't seen you since…" Kevin didn't know what to say.
"Since Ryjell IV when you left Helen, me, Pierce and Alan drained, unconscious and half dead on a space station with no gravity." Manny finished for him.
"Yeah… that… Um. You look good." Kevin ventured. Certainly they both looked better than the last time he'd seen them. Much more alive and not floating unconscious in zero-G.
"Ya know, I spent a long time thinking about what I was gonna say to you if I ever saw you again." Manny's four Tetramand eyes narrowed at him. "About a decade ago, I finally figured it out. I'm glad I'm getting the chance to say this…" Then his expression did a complete one-eighty, his eyes softening into compassion. "I get it, man. I totally get it, I'd have done something similar for my little girl. Maybe not… maybe not as dramatic as what you did, but we do what we have to for our kids. Am I right?"
Kevin was completely taken aback. "Uh… uh, yeah! You've got a kid now?"
At his side, Kevin felt Gwen smile and interlace her fingers with his.
Helen also smiled and pulled a wallet from her purse. "A daughter. She'll be ten this summer."
They showed him a photo of a small but thick-built child with blue skin and four arms, a Kineceleran tail and Tetramand feet, four eyes and an elongated skull. Definitely a Kineceleran-Tetramand hybrid. Kevin couldn't imagine how the power-set would work, or if she even inherited any speed or strength abilities from her parents at all, but at least she looked more balanced and well formed than Devlin had looked when he was a baby. That just wasn't fair!
"She looks… very well put together." Kevin finally said. "You must be very proud."
"We are." Helen smiled. "We actually didn't think we could have a baby -both being half-human and all- most inter-species hybrids are sterile. She's our miracle girl." If anyone wanted to take a moment to pause on that thought, they didn't get a chance to because Helen quickly changed the subject and continued. "Anyway, wow, sixteen years, huh! You've missed so much! Lets see… Manny and I got married and had a baby, Pierce now teaches at the Weekend Academy -actually, he's the Principal. You know about the Weekend Academy, right? Both Devlin and Kenny go there."
"I've heard about the Academy." Kevin confirmed.
Helen nodded. "Well, my brother runs it now. Cooper used to teach there too up until just last week. Something happened, but he won't talk about it with any of us. Oh! And Cooper and Gwen have been- uh…" She paused noticing Kevin and Gwen's interlocked hands. "Uh… ya know, never mind about Cooper and Gwen. You don't wanna hear that right after getting out. Lets talk about Alan! You won't believe who he's dating now!"
"If you mean Gwen and Cooper were dating for the last year, I know about that." Kevin put her at ease. Gwen was his again and so Kevin wasn't threatened in the least about her seeking other male companionship back when he wasn't around to provide it. She was human after all -mostly human- and women had needs.
"Cooper and I broke up last weekend." Gwen informed them. "Around the same time he resigned his position at the Weekend Academy."
"But he was gonna propose!" Helen exclaimed.
"He had a ring and everything." Manny added.
"He did." Gwen confirmed. "But it wouldn't have been fair to him if I married him when I was still in love with someone else." A sideways glance at Kevin. "So we broke-up. -And some other stuff happened."
There was a pregnant pause.
"Its funny how that coincidentally just so happened to coincide with Kevin being released from the Null Void." Manny observed.
This comment received nothing but awkward and uncomfortable laughs from Kevin and Gwen. The truth was that after Gwen rejected Cooper's proposal, he went a little off the deep end. But then, that's what happens when you obsess over the same woman for your entire life. When you finally realize the fact that she'll never return your feelings the way you want, you have a small psychotic break-down, kidnap her son, use him as bait to lure her into a trap, use her as a battery to power a super-weapon, and try to kill her ex-con ex-husband.
In the end, Gwen decided not to press charges or pursue the matter any more than it had already been dealt with -much to Devlin's loud and vehement protests. It was just Cooper after all. They were friends. Besides, it wasn't like that was the first time a boyfriend had ever flipped and gone nutty on her. What was one psychotic break among friends? Water near a bridge.
But Kevin didn't want Cooper around his kid anymore. And since Kevin could think of many, many, many ways of torturing a person for days without allowing them the escape of death, Cooper did the honorable thing and resigned his teaching position at the Weekend Academy.
"Ahem. Yeah. Funny that." Kevin coughed.
There was a second pause, this one more awkward than the first.
"So…"
Then Gwen spotted someone in the crowd. "Oh no…"
"What?" Kevin followed her gaze. He didn't recognize the woman, but the man on her arm he certainly did. It was Alan Albright. "Its just Alan. What's the problem?"
"Its not Alan she's 'oh no'ing about." Helen informed him. "Its his date. That's Kai Green, Ben's first wife."
"Wait, first wife?" Kevin blinked in confusion. "That can't be right because I don't recognize that chick at all and…" he cast his gaze around, looking for the boys. When he spotted them still by the buffet table he pointed to Kenny. "That kid is almost the same age as my son. There couldn't have been enough time for Tennyson to meet some new girl and have a kid."
Gwen placed a hand on his shoulder and said in her 'lets be emotionally sympathetic voice', "Ben was in a bad place after you were sentenced. He'd just lost his best friend, Julie broke up with him, I was to busy with Devlin to comfort him and… well, Kai is an old friend from when we were kids. When she reentered our lives I guess he just kind of latched onto her -emotional dependency is what its called. One thing lead to another and then there was Kenny and then there was a wedding."
"And then there was a divorce and then Julie again." Manny finished the narrative. "Good thing Julie's not here too."
"I should go run interference." Gwen disentangled herself from Kevin and wove her way through the crowd to Alan and Kai.
"We should try and detour Alan and Kai." Helen suggested.
Kevin was left standing alone on the edge of a party full of people he didn't know. Senators and Representatives. Corporate executives and industry titans. It like a salad of every one of Kevin's favorite types of marks from his con-man days.
He watched a congressman and his assistant as they chatted with a banker. The congressman's hand slowly drifted to the small of his assistant's back but she made no move to deter him -they were sleeping together, the perfect mark for a straightforward and simple blackmail. The banker's suit looked nice, but his watch was a counterfeit and his shoes weren't quite as shiny as everyone else's -he was down on his luck and in need of quick cash, a good mark for the Fiddle Game con.
Idly, Kevin found half his mind planning out set-ups for each. While the other half of his brain reprimanded him, reminding him that this sort of thing would only damage his already tenuous and fragile relationship with his son. He really should go straight.
But that thought brought up the question of what was he going to do now that he was out. Find a real job or something? Who in their right mind would hire Kevin 11,000 for… anything!? Maybe he should just find a hobby to occupy his time if nothing else. A legal hobby.
"Barely even out and already up to your old tricks, eh Kevin?" A man Kevin did not recognize slithered up next to him. He looked mostly human, although he carried obvious alien traits that would definitely set him apart from a crowd (not this crowd, mind you, but a crowd). With pale orange skin and a large head. A thin face with a sharp goatee , narrow red eyes, high cheek bones and pointed ears. His features were very distinct and Kevin was sure he would have recognized the man if they'd met before.
So, it was understandable that he was confused by how familiar the man seemed to be with him. "Do I know you?"
"Of course you wouldn't remember me." He said as if this should have been obvious. "But I'm very familiar with you. Hector Servantis, pleased to remake your acquaintance."
The name did not ring any bells. But for some reason, Kevin got the sudden feeling of wanting to be anywhere else but there with Servantis. As a general rule, Kevin had excellent instincts about people. One had to if they were going to be a good con artist or a good contraband dealer. You needed to know how to feel out cops, Plumbers, and Feds just as well as feeling out your customers or marks. Misjudge someone and you could end up in prison -or dead. "What do you want?"
"To offer you a position, actually." He shrugged casually. "Your particular ability is hard to find and its something I could use."
"Not interested." Kevin didn't even have to think about it. There was just something about this guy that made every fiber of his being scream 'run! run away and never look back!'.
"I would consider it if I were you." He insisted. "The work's interesting and I guarantee the pay will be good. And besides… who else would hire someone with your infamous reputation?"
"You haven't even said what the job is." Kevin pointed out.
He chuckled at that. "Ah, sorry. Ahm. Back when you were a Plumber, you were aware of specialized teams, yes? Well, I'm putting together one of those specialized teams."
Now it was Kevin's turn to chuckle, a dark ironic sound from the back of his throat. "Man, you must be more naive than Tennyson over there if you think the Plumbers will take me back after what I pulled."
"I'm allowed certain liberties and freedoms for putting together this team."
"Pssh, sure." Kevin scoffed. He heard enough. Not only did this guy make him edgy, but he wasn't even a good con. Everyone knows that when you spin a story you gotta make it believable. No Plumbers organization would ever give him his badge back. It was pure fantasy. Servantis was nothing more than a liar -and not even a very good one at that. "If you'll excuse me, it looks like my buddy Benji's about to get bitch-slapped and I don't wanna miss it."
Kevin walked away.
Sevantis waited until he was out of ear-shot before rolling up the sleeve of his suit to reveal a device on his wrist. He on switched the com. "Well, you were right. He didn't take the offer."
"Told you he wouldn't." Said a female voice on the other end. "Probably better off without him anyway. He's probably gone soft rotting in that cell for the past sixteen years."
"I respectfully disagree." Servantis insisted. "But to put the question to rest, lets test him. Send in Phil. Terroranchula form only, please. He can't be recognized."
It seemed neither Gwen nor Helen and Manny were able to run successful interference between Ben and his ex-wife. By the time Kevin arrived at their particular circle, the two were already facing off; trading insults and arguments while their respective associates tried holding them back. Gwen held one of Ben's arms while Alan's hand was on Kai's shoulder. Devlin and Kenny had also arrived, with the latter looking distressed at finding his parents once again fighting while the former had a supportive arm around him.
"I can't believe you showed up here!" Ben was saying. "I mean, did you really think I wouldn't be at my own best friend's Pardon Ceremony?"
"Oh, would this be the best friend who terrorized the galaxy, nearly killed you, and spent the last two decades in the Null Void? Or the best friend who was your partner for ten years yet somehow never managed to acclimate to Earth culture and finally left you?" Kai shot back.
"You leave Rook out of this!" Ben snapped. Then his eyes focused on Alan. "And you, how could you! I thought we were friends! What are you doing carrying on with my wife!?"
"Ex-wife!" Kai fumed. "And don't be mad at him. I can date whoever I like -you might recall you did the same thing with that little racket bunny of yours!"
"Mom, Dad, please don't fight." Kenny moaned. He looked like he was on the verge of tears as Devlin held him.
"Look, you're making your son cry." Ben snapped.
"I am!?" Her dark eyes went wide. "You're the one who missed nine of his fifteen birthdays! You deadbeat!"
Alright, Kevin had heard enough. As fun as it was to watch Ben's train-wreck relationships play out, that was low. Dragging the kid into the argument -no. There was a lot of shady and un-cool crap Kevin was willing to do, but he had a line. He terrorized half the galaxy for the sake of his own child. When Devlin was born in his monster form, there wasn't anything Kevin wasn't willing to do to make him normal. Because that was what parents were supposed to do. Sacrifice anything for their kids. They protected their kids. They did not use them as ammunition to hurt their partner (or former partner as the case my be).
"Yeah? Well, at least I was around enough to actually get custody! You're always hopping around the world looking for old bones and broken pots! I got a bone for ya-"
"That's enough, you two." Kevin stepped between them. "Hi. Kai, was it? I'm Ben's friend who terrorized the galaxy, nearly killed him, and spent the last sixteen years in the Null Void. You must be ex-wife number one. Pleased to meet you."
Her eyes went wide upon suddenly finding herself face-to-face with one of the most terrifying and infamous monsters to ever rip his way across the galaxy. Kevin found himself wondering if that was how most people were gonna react upon first meeting him from now on.
"Now if you wanna swap stories about Ben's many failings, I'd definitely get in on that action." Kevin continued. "But not right now. Not here. And definitely not in front of the kids."
Out of the corner of his eye, Kevin saw Devlin's body language shift. He went from protective and supportive holding Kenny, to interested and alert paying attention to Kevin. He couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing. Did Devlin appreciate him stepping and and urging Kai away from fighting with her ex-husband in front of their son? Did he disapprove of his readiness to swap 'everything that's wrong with Ben' stories? Or was he ambivalent to the whole thing and just wanted to see how this would play out?
Either way it didn't matter.
Everyone was distracted when a giant alien monster suddenly tore through the party.
It looked like a Terroranchula except the shape and body proportions were off. Terroranchula were supposed to be gigantic four-legged creatures with the body of a silverfish and the head of a monster-moth. This one, however, had the body of a gorilla and the proportions of a Mr. Universe body builder. A Terroranchula-human hybrid, perhaps? Or at least a Terroranchula-humanoid hybrid. How in the world did that work? Anodites, Kineceleran, Tetramand, and Pyronite mixed with human or humanoid, okay. But Terroranchula? Wut?
Not that anybody really took the time to wonder that particular point. They were all to busy screaming and running for their lives.
"You two wanna put your fight on hold for a sec and fight that instead?" Devlin suggested as he let go of Kenny and shrugged off his suit-jacket.
Kenny's demeanor had likewise changed. He was no longer paying attention to his parents but had instead already started toggling through his own faux-Omnitrix, looking for an alien that would be good against a Terroranchula. It took only a half-second for Ben to follow his son's lead and begin toggling through his own Omnitrix.
Ben's ex-wife, Kai, lifted up her skirt just enough to reveal a garter holster that held what looked like a sword hilt with no blade. For half a second Kevin thought she was gonna whip out a lightsaber. But instead a collapsible blade consisting of four joints unfolded itself and locked.
Gwen, likewise, lifted her skirt, but not to pull a weapon. Gwen didn't need weapons. She ripped her skirt enough to give her legs more freedom of movement. …And it was the hottest thing Kevin had seen her do in sixteen years.
Kevin dropped to his knees, one hand laying palm-flat on the ground to absorb the concrete.
All this happened within a matter of moments nearly as soon as the Terroranchula-hybrid tore into the party. One had to have good reaction time to be a member of Ben's Team.
Devlin was the first to actually jump up and run interference between the monster and the essentially helpless crowd. It wasn't like they could depend on Agrit's Techadon guards to protect them. Argit also had a fast reaction time and had already absconded, taking his robotic super-weapons with him. Devlin picked up a serving tray that was dropped by a fleeing member of the wait staff and frisbie-threw it at the Terroranchula's head.
It didn't hurt the thing, but it did draw the beast's attention.
The Terroranchula rounded on Devlin, and Kevin had a mild heart-attack when he saw that ten-foot-tall monster marching menacingly towards his son. But Devlin had been well trained by Gwen since he was eleven-years-old. The Terroranchula might be larger than him and quite probably stronger than him considering the boy was still in his human form, but Devlin took its momentum and used it to turn the beast's own weight against it. Flipping the Terroranchula in a straight-line judo toss.
It lay on the ground and Devlin didn't waist the opportunity. He climbed onto the Terroranchula's chest. "Buddy, you picked the wrong party to crash."
But the Terroranchula swatted him off like a gnat.
Kenny -in the form of Fourarms- was at his side in moments. "Dude, just transform. You'll get beat-up less."
"I don't want to transform." The kid growled, examining a tear in his white dress-shirt. He hated his mutant-alien form. It was monstrous, and ugly, and the reason why he couldn't have a normal childhood for the first eleven years of his life.
"Well I hope you enjoy getting your butt kicked." The younger Tennyson rolled all four of his Tetramand eyes.
Devlin just glared. There had to be a way for him to fight mutants, monsters, and aliens without turning into a mutant-alien-monster himself.
With the Terroranchula back on its feet, it was the adults turn to try. Kai sliced at its legs, trying to weaken its support and bring the creature back down again. This seemed to only irritate the beast, however, and Kai was likewise swatted away. Alan caught her before she crashed painfully into the ground.
"Ya know, you could go flame on and help." She suggested.
"This is an eight-hundred terran suit." He reminded her. His flame ability would incinerate whatever he was wearing when he went flame on.
Kevin figured it was his turn -since Ben was still toggling through his watch. Really, 10,000 was such an impractical number. The Omnitrix should really come with a search engine if it was gonna keep climbing in numbers like that.
"Gwen, maneuver seven!" Kevin shouted.
He interlaced the fingers of his hand just as Gwen reached him and jumped, using the platform of his hands to propel her higher into the air. Gwen shot mana orb after mana at the Terroranchula as she flew up and over its head, coming down behind his back.
It was nothing more than a distraction tactic. Which gave Kevin the opportunity he needed to get in close and land one cheap sucker punch below the belt. Morphing his concrete fist into a very unfriendly spiked mace, he thrust upwards right into the creatures groin.
Normal Terroranchula did not have genitalia as most humans and humanoid races had, but this particular Terroranchula was more humanoid than was normal. So Kevin took a gamble. …And it looked like he was right.
The Terroranchula went down clutching his crotch in pain.
"That wasn't so hard." Kevin commented.
"That's what she said!" Ben -now in the form of Feedback- took the unintentional set-up.
He and Kevin shared a laugh like nothing had changed between them and the last sixteen years of imprisonment had never happened. "Nice."
"Ugh. Penis jokes, really?" Gwen, Kai, and Helen all had their arms crossed and were glaring disapprovingly at them. "You two aren't children anymore."
"How did that cheap shot even work?" Alan asked.
"Yeah." Manny agreed. "Terroranchula don't have… ya know."
Kevin smirked. It was so rare that he got to -not only be the hero- but also got to be the smart one to give the wrap-up exposition. This was shaping up to be a really fun party. "Didn't you guys notice that this thing doesn't look completely Terroranchula? Its got obvious humanoid traits. So, I figured I had about a fifty-fifty chance of it having that humanoid trait as well."
The Terroranchula gowned through the pain and tried to get back up. But Ben used Feedback's ability to taser it until it fell into proper unconsciousness.
"Well, that was fun!" Kenny commented. "And here I thought this was just gonna be another boring, snooty, grown-up party. Right, Dev?"
"Even without transforming, I ruined my shirt." The older boy lamented.
Alan placed a sympathetic hand on the kid's shoulder. "The struggle is real!"
In an attempt to bring the men back to the business at hand, Kai and Gwen both cleared their throats. "So, what are we gonna do with this thing?"
No sooner had the question been asked, however, than Hector Servantis appeared. He flashed his Plumbers badge with its black spot and said politely, "I believe I can take him off your hands for you. No need for such ladies as lovely as yourselves to get your hands dirty."
He raised his arm and made a gesture with his hand. Two other black-suited, black spotted Plumbers appeared -seemingly out of nowhere, but they must have been lurking somewhere close by if for no other reason than Servantis' gesture was a line-of-sight only communication. They lifted the Terroranchula up and carried him away. He then turned to Kevin.
"I see your skills haven't degraded even after your extended imprisonment." He did a little twist of his wrist and a plain white business card appeared in his hand. "Think about my offer." He was about to leave after his people but paused for a moment, turning to Devlin. "Young man, that was a very impressive toss."
"Uh. thanks."
Servantis shrugged and left.
Kevin turned to the rest of Ben's Team. Members both old and new, formed a semi-circle around where the Terroranchula had been. They were all wondering the same thing. "Who was that guy?"
...