This has been in my head for a while, I'm trying to get my inspiration for my other Ben x Rook story but instead, I got this. I mean, I'm not complaining, but still. I'm sorry if Mad Ben or Mad Rook seem OOC, not that I know much about either so really, I'm just guessing here, but anyway, this Mad world has potential . . . a potential that brings the sinister part of me out :-P.

I do not own Ben 10: Omniverse.

One for the Show

A weak moan escapes parted lips, the sound reverberating heavily through the person's chest cavity in a rather unpleasant way, closed lids open to reveal hazy amber eyes, the eyes flick from object to object only to land upon a closed wooden door that looked as bad as the hurt somebody felt. Closing their eyes and swallowing heavily, they force themselves into a seated position. It leaves their head swimming and vision spinning, but they remain strong. Upon reopening their eyes, the first thing they notice is the previously closed door is now wide open with a strangely dressed human standing in the entryway, their expression is 'mutual' at best with just the barest hint of something malicious hidden underneath, desperate to be shown.

"So you're awake." it's a statement, the human pushes off the doorframe, there's something about him that makes the traveler vaguely uncomfortable, "I was beginning t'think I'd have t'drag your lifeless corpse outside."

"I . . . ,"

"Ah, ah." the human grins with ill-intent, "You get to ask ONE question. Think wisely, revonnahgander."

The revonnahgander pauses, "Who are you?"

The human's grin gets wider, "The name's Ben."

Not quite sure what to do with himself, the revonnahgander sits at the edge of the musty bed, hands in his lap as he tries to process all he's been through; he already knows where he is, Earth, he knows what happened to him, he knows someone had saved him, and he knows the name of the human currently watching him like a feral muroid . . . he knows he must be careful around the dangerous stranger. A worn wooden chair is pulled up before him, the backrest facing him, the human sits on it, his arms crossed over the top of the backrest.

"Whatcha thinking about revonnahgander?"

"I . . . ," careful, "If it was you who saved me, I thank you, but I must get going."

"Now," Ben looks contemplative, it's a mask, "Here's the thing revonnahgander, you're not going anywhere. Y'see, I went out of my way to save your sorry ass when I didn't HAVE to and if I remember right, your species has some kind of honor code which means YOU now owe me your life."

The revonnahgander blinks before frowning, "You are . . . right."

"Hell yeah I'm right. Now why don't we start this off by you telling me YOUR name."

"I am Rook Blonko." he stills, "Of Revonnah."

"Figured as much alien." Ben snorts, he rises from his seat, "Now follow me, I got something to show you." Rook watches the human for a moment before forcing himself to follow, "You happened t'come at a good time, I just so happen to be in need of an extra body."

"E-extra body?"

"Y'know, an extra pair of hands, another servant." Ben states flippantly, "One of my guys bit the dust not too long ago, then again, guy shouldn't have gotten in my way." this is followed by a dark chuckle that has Rook stalling when the words sink in, Ben continues "How well can you fight revonnahgander?"

"I am trained."

Ben hums, stopping short of exiting the building, setting his orange colored eyes on the alien, there's a smirk on his lips, "At least you won't be completely useless. Now," he turns towards the door and pushes it open with a flourish, the door swings outward revealing a vast landscape of broken buildings and sand, they're standing atop what seems to be a rather high building giving them an impressive view of the ravaged cityscape, "Welcome to Benwood."

Heart pounding in his ears, Rook moves shakily towards the railing . . . when he had been flying over the area last night, it hadn't seemed this bad. Looking beyond some of the dilapidated buildings, he spots what looks to be some sort of excavation site with miniature dust clouds popping up every now and then. He hears the thudding of the human's booted feet, he can feel him as he stands not too far from his right. Rook looks to him, there's a PROUD smile stretching his mouth and it makes the blue furred alien sick. Rook thinks he's going to say something he'll most definitely regret later when a screeching/electronic sound from below captures his attention. Both Ben and Rook cast their attentions down to the streets where there are crowds of people are going about their business.

"It's our glorious leader everyone ~ !" a man shouts into some kind of cone-thing, this gets everyone to stop immediately, all heads turning upward to look at them . . . or more likely Ben, "All hail our benevolent leader, Warlord Tennyson ~ !"

Cheers erupt from the streets, Rook takes a step back as Ben smiles down on them. Not particularly liking the situation, the alien turns to leave when an orange colored light erupts from behind him, he thinks he hears the crowd gasp but that's pushed to the far side of his mind when he's roughly grabbed by the nape of his neck by a rather large hand that WASN'T the human's. Two hands wrap around his ribs, the hand on the nape of his neck disappearing. He's brought face to face with a tetramand with the same color of eyes as Ben, what cinches its identity is the malicious sneer on its lips.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going revonnahgander?"

"I do not . . . ," Rook's taking in the tetramand's appearance, its Ben without a doubt, "How . . . ?"

Tetramand Ben smirks wickedly, "Neat little trick ain't it?" he clenches Rook's form causing the alien to wince and hiss in pain, "And I owe it all to this little thing called an Omnitrix, making ME the ultimate ruler. I can change into any alien I want. I can do whatever I want without anyone stopping me." he drops Rook, "Sure, there are small rebellions here and there but they only last for so long until I hunt them down and snuff them out. THIS is MY world and if you want to survive, I suggest you don't do anything stupid and stay out of my way." he leans close, "Are we understood revonnahgander?"

Rook can only glare, "Understood."

"Good." a beeping sound is heard followed by the same orange light, Rook shields his eyes and when he looks, human Ben is standing there once again, "We've got business to attend to, get out of those rags and into something better. If you're not ready in five I'm going t'crack your skull."

The blue furred alien watches the human walk back into the building, releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, Rook makes his way into the room he'd awoken in. Stripping out of his clothes, he wanders to the worn wooden dresser and rifles through the musty moth eaten clothes, only picking out something he thinks he'd be able to fit. In the end he's dressed in a sandy colored shirt, its baggy but it rides up his torso a little, and a pair of dark brown pants. Pulling on his boots, he exits the room and in to the small waiting area, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little afraid of this Ben guy.

"Three minutes." Ben rumbles, Rook spots the guy across the room, leaning against a wall with a leg propped against it, arms crossed over his chest, there's a lit cigarette in his mouth, "You're a pretty quick dresser, looks like I won't have t'crack your skull after all Blue Boy. C'mon," he heads towards an elevator, "Those bastards better be ready or I'm going t'be pissed."

O-F-T-S

All was silent within the shaky elevator, Rook watching the numbers light up and willing the contraption to move faster as Ben puffed away on his funny smelling paper nuisance. Every few seconds the revonnahgander would shift, edging closer to the wall of the elevator in a subtle attempt at putting as much distance between him and the smoking human . . . the very human who destroyed his own planet, the very same one who frightened him a little, the very same one he was honor bound to for who knew how long.

"Oi, revonnahgander." Rook looks to Ben only for a cloud of smoke to be blown in his face, Rook coughs, reeling back until he's pressed flat against the wall, hand covering his mouth and nose while the other swipes at the smoke, Ben merely laughs, "What's the matter mate? Got something in your throat?" Rook glares daggers at the crude teen, making said person laugh harder even as the elevator doors open and he exits.

O-F-T-S

Stepping out on to the sun baked streets of 'Benwood', Rook uses his forearm to shield his eyes from the harsh light of the desert like sun, when it does he takes in all he can of the people and his surroundings. The city buildings are cracked with mild states of erosion much like the streets and sidewalks, the people are weary and dressed in various shades of brown. When they see Ben they fall to their knees and sing his praises almost religiously while the teenage warlord soaks it in, taking it in with a confident smirk . . . all in all, everything seems to be okay, well, minus the wasteland and the fact that Ben is a warlord.

"If I may ask," Rook begins, he notices the men in uniforms and matching masks tense but he can't take it back for Ben is now looking at him with a cold glare, "Where is it we are going?"

Ben regards him for a moment before looking ahead, "Let's just say you're going to meet some of your fellow workers."

The men in the masks relax a little, allowing Rook to relax as well for it meant a possibly dangerous situation had been avoided, and while things didn't end up too bad this time, the revonnahgander realized he was only to talk when talked to. Rook wondered how bad Ben was if he could make grown men quake with fear . . . did he deal severe punishments? If so, how bad were they? Did he torture them?

The revonnahgander hated not knowing anything about a particular situation, especially in dangerous situations, so far he knew Ben could transform into different aliens thanks to his omnitrix device as well as the fact that he'd KILLED one of his guys just for being in his way, but he needed more information, just HOW dangerous was this guy and how FAR was he willing to go just to get what he wanted. . . but of course, only time would tell.


The ending is just blah, I needed to reach my word count which is 2000 words because anything less than that is unsatisfactory :P which is why I'm also rambling right now, I'm sorry.

So my story Our Transgressions is in progress, I'm still kind of wondering how I'm going to deal with that, shall I make it a short prequel story to the story I'm going to make that'll revolve around the series or should I just keep them both together as I was originally going to do?