Disclaimer: We don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 1.
Same old Bellwood...
Gwen doubted that her home town would ever really change, but this was a bit extreme. She and Kevin were visiting Bellwood while on break from college and naturally had decided to hang out with Ben and Rook at Mr. Smoothies.
Just like old times.
It was nice to see how Ben and Rook acted around each other now that they were dating. It wasn't that different from before actually. Which was nice.
Of course just like old times, the group had to be attacked as well.
They were just enjoying their smoothies and having small talk when Zombozo and the Circus Freak Trio attacked them.
Which was what started this fight.
Needlessly to say they had been quick to jump into action. Gwen had taken on ThumbSkull, Rook was fighting Zombozo, Kevin was battling Frightwing, and Ben was fighting the toughest one of the circus freaks, Acid Breath.
"Hey Kev! Heads up!" Ben shouted now in his Wildvine form. He threw Acid Breath towards Kevin who quickly transformed his arm into a metal baseball bat and swung it.
"Home run!" Kevin cried watching the mutant land a couple of feet away.
Wildvine smirked, walking over to the now unconscious villain. "Two words dude." He said informed Acid Breath. "Breath, mint."
Zombozo, who had been paying close attention to Ben since the fight began grinned. This was what he'd been waiting for. "Frightwing now!" He cried only just dodging a blow Rook's fist.
Using her long hair Frightwing pulled out a rather large, blue lazer gun and fired.
Rook saw what happened, but he was too far away from the Frightwing to do anything.
"BEN LOOK OUT!"
Wildvince heard Rook's shout and whirled around ready to attack who ever snuck up behind. Too late did he see the dark blue laser gun in Frightwing's hand. He hadn't expected such a thing from Zombozo's goons. Using guns just wasn't their style.
A black ray shot out of it the gun, hitting Wildvine right in the chest. Less that a second later the Omnitrix made that dreaded beeping sound that it always did when its' owner suffered too much damage to remain in one form, and Ben turned back to normal and fell to the floor in an unconscious heap.
"Ben!" Gwen cried about to run to her cousin's side but stopping when she saw the Frightwing was now aiming the gun at her.
Frightwing would have hit Gwen with the ray had Kevin not pulled her down by her hair and ripped the lazer gun from her hands.
Looking at the gun Kevin frowned at its' odd shape. He didn't recognize the logo on it, which was odd because he knew them all. Zombozo must have made this one himself. "What kind of lazer gun is this?" He wondered to himself.
For a moment Rook's eyes stayed on only his unconscious boyfriend. When he snapped out of his shocked daze his eyes had narrowed in an almost feral sort of anger.
Growling Rook grabbed Zombozo by his collar and slammed him into the nearest building wall. "What did you do to him!" Rook hissed.
Zombozo just smirked at the Revonahgander, the twisted smile on his face gave him a somewhat deranged look. "I wonder what heroes dream off..." The clown whispered and Rook cringed at the smell of Zombozo's breath.
The clown glanced past Rook's shoulder so he wink at Kevin. "I'm sure he must have seen his fair share of monsters."
Suddenly smoke came from the flower on Zombozo's chest and filled the entire area.
Zombozo and his goons were gone when the smoke cleared.
"Brallada." Rook growled, glaring in the direction the mad clown must have gone of to.
Behind him Kevin nodded in agreement.
"Ben!"
Gwen's worried cry got both men to rush to the anidote's side.
The redhead was on her knees in the sand, Ben's head craddled on her lap.
Ben didn't have any visible injuries, but his eyes were clenched shut and his face twisted into a grimace. Something was obviously wrong with the hero.
Gwen shared a worried look with her companions. "We have to get him to the HQ." Grandpa Max would know what to do.
"Agreed." Rook nodded stepping forward. He bent down and carefully lifted Ben into his arms "Gwen, can you drive for me?"
Nodding, Gwen got to her feet. "Sure."
"I'll take my car and be right behind you." Kevin told them rushing to his own car while the others raced to the proto-truck. Time was of essence with these sort of things.
Ben-10-Omniverse.
Ben's condition had worsened by the time they reached Plumber HQ. He had paled every once in a while he'd let short quiet groans.
They'd put Ben on the exam table in the med lab and Rook, Gwen, Kevin and grandpa Max were all anxiously waiting for Bluckic and Driba to inform them of the resuts of Ben's scan.
"Well," Max spoke up when Driba turned away from the computer screen. "do you know what's wrong?"
"It seems that the ray gun put Ben into a sleep-like coma." Driba answered.
"A very deep sleep-like coma." Bluckic added.
"He's asleep?" Kevin echoed, frowning . "Then why won't he wake up?" His frown deepened when he thought about it. "What kind of lame weapon is that anyway?" He muttered crossing his arms.
Kevin figured that if you'd get one lucky shot at Ben Tennyson that you'd do more than just hit him with a sleep-ray.
Rook stood besides the exam table, gently running his fingers through his boyfriend's messy hair. Ben did not look asleep. Ben had spend multiple nights with Rook in his room at Plumber HQ so Rook knew how Ben looked when resting and this was not it. No one looked that troubled if they were peacefully dream-
Rook's mind flashed what Zombozo had said before fleeing the battlefield.
"Zombozo mentioned something about... wondering what heroes dream about." Rook informed the others. "Something about monsters?" He said no longer sure himself. He had been too furious to really listen to the clown's words.
"Monsters..." Gwen repeated frowning. That did seem to be something Zombozo would like yes. Monsters, phobias, illusions and... "Nightmares!" The redhead suddenly exclaimed.
Kevin stared at her. "What?"
"Zombozo feeds on fear remember?" Gwen clarified, her mind going back to a long phone conversation with her cousin. Ben had been ranting all about 'zombie clowns' and how not afraid of the he had been.
Like she didn't know better. She didn't know anyone who had as epic nightmares as her cousin. Not that she could blame Ben. She had a lot of them to. But then again their childhood had been far from ordinary. Everyone would get nightmares. Even heroes of the universe. "Ever since Ben started doing hero stuff when we were 10 he gets a lot of nightmares." Gwen explained.
"Oh yeah," Kevin snapped his fingers when he remembered something from almost a year ago. "I remember one time he pulled four all nighters in a row."
Max nodded slowly already coming to the same conclusion Gwen had. "So to Zombozo, Ben's fears are an all you can eat buffet."
"Nightmare-ray." Kevin concluded nodding to himself. "Well, I gotta say that definetly sounds better than a sleeping-ray." He winced when Gwen slapped his shoulder.
"Kevin this is serious." The red-head hissed, her green eyes narrowed in worry. "The longer Ben stays like this, how stronger Zombozo gets. We need to wake him up."
Rook could not agree more. "But how do we plan to accomplish that?" The revonahgander questioned without taking his eyes away from the 'sleeping' figuere on the exam table. Ben had already slept throught Gwen's reckless drive to HQ, a red alarm, being carried to the med labs and through all of Bluckic and Driba's prodding.
No one had an immediate answer to that.
At least not un till Gwen suddenly perked up. "I know a spell that might help."
This time Rook did look up. "What does it do?"
"It lets a small group of people go into someone's subconscious mind." Gwen explained, mentally going through the ritual to prepare herself. It was better than staring at Rook's worried expression. Although it was beautiful to see how much he cared for her cousin. "It'll be hard but I think I can send me, you and Kevin into Ben's dream."
"Wouldn't it be easier to send one of us?" Kevin asked already wondering what they'd find in Ben's subconscious.
Gwen shook her head. "We don't know what kind of nightmares could be in there." She quietly reminded the others. "If only one of us goes in without some form of help we may not to be able to wake him up and Ben will be stuck in a world of nightmares."
He'd already expected something like that, but hearing Gwen say it made Rook pause. He looked at Ben, taking in the worry lines and the deep frown on Ben's face. It wasn't natural seeing someone as... Cheerful and confident like Ben, with such a fearful expression.
No. Ben would not stay like that.
Rook would make sure of it.