Streets Run Red
Summary: Kevin Levin hid secrets from the Tennyson cousins, but it seems that they won't be buried forever and now he has to reclaim an identity he had abandoned.
April 28
Kevin Levin ran his fingers through his hair as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.
It had been six years since he'd been trapped in the Null Void, and four years since a day that had changed his life. He had put that event behind him and had moved on with his life, he didn't like to think about the past and all his screw-ups, he felt he had matured beyond his blind rage and need to lash out at others, but today, he felt like he was going to explode.
"Do you understand?"
The words rang in his mind over and over. People always tried to get him to understand, but for so long he never did, when he did he did understand it was always too late for him to do anything.
"Yeah I get it. He's a total nut bar."
Kevin thought he'd been a crazy psycho, but when it came to scary villains, villains told stories about this one in order to scare each other, and it worked every single time.
He'd known the sheer power of psychosis, and he once thought that he could handle facing a villain who was even more insane than he had been. He'd been very wrong and had paid a terrible price for it, but looking at him now you couldn't tell.
"No. Do not treat this lightly, and don't write him off as simply being insane. It's not that simple. He's not like the others."
Kevin had learned the hard way to take villains seriously, and he had always been serious when he was around Ben and Gwen, he didn't want to repeat his mistakes.
"He has no code. No methodology. No goals. You can't hope to understand him because his desires are fluid. They change."
When he had absorbed all of Aggregor's powers, he had actually tried to use this formula against Ben. It had almost worked, but Gwen had been persistent and had tried so hard to keep Ben from killing him.
He had never understood his former mentor's need to spare the villains, but mow that he'd experienced it, he understood, still, it had almost cost him his life.
"He can't be predicted. He can't be reasoned with."
Kevin thoughts turned inward. He had been so selfish when he was insane, it had always been about him when he was that way, but even though he had wanted to kill, he'd always had a reason, this freak had the most unpredictable mind known to humanity.
"And if you're careless with him…you'll die. Do you understand?"
He'd been stupid and careless and he'd paid for it. He'd learned his lesson and he tried his best to put it into practice.
"Yes I understand."
Looking back on his past, he had been petty, and he knew there was no way he would have been able to get revenge, but he had been instilled with a need to protect people, he had suppressed it for a long time in order to forget about the things he had done, he had blocked out years because he had wanted to be selfish and unattached to anyone, but when he had come back into the Tennyson's lives he had rekindled those feelings of needing to protect and the selflessness that he had felt long ago.
"Good. Because he's back out there and only we can stop him."
Kevin shook his head, brushing away the old memory. He hadn't thought about him in years, not since he'd hatched a plan to get revenge on everyone who had wronged him, and not just Ben, he'd gone after the one person he hated more than Ben Tennyson, but he'd been thwarted, and after he had recovered from his injuries he had gone back to Bellwood and made the deal with the Forever Knights that had brought him back into contact with the Tennyson cousins.
Kevin had lived in the Incarcecon for a year, after he had escaped, he had travelled the globe, learning more from other criminals, increasing his knowledge of alien tech, but he'd fallen on hard times and had settled into a rather famous crime-ridden city, where he had met an extraordinary man who had offered him the opportunity to become something beyond even his wildest dreams, but the happiness was short lived and tragedy had ripped him away from the one thing that had brought meaning to his life.
He had been through more than anyone was expected to handle, only to find that he had been replaced and seemingly forgotten, so he set out on a quest to take revenge and he'd planned it for years only to lose in the end. But ever since he'd come back to Bellwood, he'd put all of it behind him. He had obtained his dream, had a wonderful girlfriend and a best friend and the life he had always wanted, but today, the past was starting to creep up on him.
Kevin sighed, "It's the anniversary of…well; let's just not think about that. It doesn't matter anyway."
He got up from his bed and wiped the sweat off his face, he always had the same nightmare every April 28th but he had been thinking about his troubled past lately, more than usual.
He checked his phone for text from Gwen or Ben, he desperately hoped that there would be something for him to do, but most importantly, he wanted to smash some criminal scumbags and release his anxious, pent up feelings.
Kevin got into his car and drove over to Mr. Smoothies were Ben and Gwen were waiting for him.
"So Gwen, have you heard all the chatter at my school lately?" Ben asked. "People are saying there's some sort of new vigilante or something like that."
"I've heard stories, few people seen him. There aren't any photos of him. I have heard say that he kills criminals. It's a terrifying thought that someone would do that. It's like how you wanted to kill Kevin when he went insane."
"Kevin was an extreme case, I don't want to kill people, but it's a last resort," Ben protested.
"What's this about a new guy?" Kevin asked.
"It's just hearsay and rumors, but there's a murderer on the loose," Gwen looked concerned.
"He kills criminals," Ben said. "We should keep a lookout for him."
"Dually noted," Kevin nodded. "Have you heard anything from the Plumbers lately?"
"We've got trouble on the docks, heard rumors there's an illegal shipment coming in. It might be stuff the police can handle, but I have a bad feeling that if we don't check it out, then something bad is going to happen."
They headed down to the docks and saw a small gathering of men unloading crates, Ben stepped forward.
"What do you boys got in there?" he asked.
The goons didn't say anything; they set the crates down and began attacking.
"Why did they have to be guys in clown masks?" Ben asked himself.
Kevin realized just where he'd seen goons like this before, and now he knew that they were getting in way over their heads.
Gwen charged, punching and kicked the nearest goon. They were decent fighters, but there were quite a few of them. Beating them back, some of them ran off and the three teens were alone.
Kevin spotted a card on the ground, it looked like a playing card, he picked it up, and looked at it. His face paled and he quickly shoved it in a pocket.
"Kevin, are you all right, you look kind of sick," Gwen was concerned.
"It's nothing," Kevin lied. "Don't worry about me."
"Guys!" Ben exclaimed, "There they are!" Ben took off running toward the goons.
The three teens were in hot pursuit and found them as they spread out to surround them.
Slowly the three heroes were forced back into a nearby warehouse, there were too many thugs with guns and even Ben's aliens could only do so much, along with Gwen and Kevin's powers.
"So long suckers!" the goon shouted, locking the door as the three heroes struggled to get to their feet.
Ben had just transformed into Fasttrack and was about to charge the goon shutting the heavy warehouse doors when the Ultimatrix timed out and reverted him back to normal. Kevin ran towards the door but it was too late.
Gwen ran up to the door and pounded on it. Ben tried to activate the Ultimatrix, but it failed.
"The Ultimatrix timed out," Ben looked at the watch. "I can't get us out of here."
"I'm too exhausted to teleport," Gwen groaned.
"I guess I'll have to," Kevin looked around, there were a lot of odds and ends, but he knew he'd be able to get them out, "Just give me a couple minutes."
Kevin took out the water bottle he'd been carrying and began using the materials around him to make an improvised explosive device. He pulled out some detonation cord and rigged it up and set it against the door.
Ben gave his best friend a stern look. "I know you know how to dismantle bombs but how did you learn to make them?"
"I learned from Shurik Ivanko."
"He's a dead Russian mobster who made bombs and trained others or an enormous fee. What were you trying to blow up?" Gwen demanded angrily.
"Something in my past and it's not something I want to talk about," Kevin replied. "Just stay back." He detonated the bomb, blasting the door apart; at least they could leave now. "I'm impressed you actually know about Shurik."
"I keep track of a lot of things, high profile criminals are something that I keep track of, just in case they go for the alien black market."
"I see," Kevin smiled; she never ceased to impress him.
"Just what did you do before you became a good guy?" Ben asked.
"You don't want the answer to that question Ben, my past is not particularly pretty," Kevin sighed. I'm not ready to tell you everything."
"When will you be ready?" Ben asked.
"In time, just don't worry about it," Kevin looked over at Gwen.
"Let's get back to the car, maybe I can track them through their cell phones, I saw what kind they have and with the alien tech I have access to, I'm sure I can listen in on their conversation."
Kevin watched her work on the computer. Her hands flew over the keyboard typing in commands as she accessed the goons cell phones, fortunately, one of them was making a phone call. She hoped that she would be able to get a location based off the cell phone towers.
Ben stared at Gwen, "What is it Gwen?"
"I've tapped into a cell phone conversation; I'm bringing it up right now."
"We got the stuff for the boss—the shipment place is—" more static and interference. "He wants to test it in Bellwood's water supply. Says there will be fireworks—ignites in the air."
Kevin's heart stopped, he'd seen this type of plan before, a long time ago in another lifetime.
"Gotta make sure this gets through, so the boss doesn't kill us."
"He might kill us anyway, especially if he thinks it's funny."
"That's why we can't screw this up. We gotta make sure that Tennyson kid doesn't find us."
"He only handles big bad aliens, he's not gonna care about us."
"We'll see about that!" Ben snarled. "We're going to stop them; we're going to tear the city apart until we find these chemicals and their boss. We're going to get him and keep this plan from happening."
"Oh God!" Gwen exclaimed. "This kind of stuff doesn't happen in our city, sure we get alien invasions and those types of psychos, but we can't let this happen."
"We'll get them like we always do," Kevin said, feigning the confidence he didn't have.
"Gwen, triangulate that signal and let's hope we can track them down, we have to find these guys fast!"
"I was stupid, I should have grabbed something off them so they could be tracked," Kevin scolded himself. He'd been careless and stupid again. It had been a bad day.
"Don't blame yourself Kevin, we didn't know this was going to happen," Gwen reassured him. Kevin didn't find her words very reassuring.
There was only one man on Earth who was insane enough to do something like this. And the dark demons of his past were resurfacing in the worst way possible.