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.
Roots
Chapter Two: Handle Anything
"He said his name was Servantis." Kevin explained in the car ride home. That was about all he knew of the mysterious black-spot level Plumber that had spirited away the Terroranchula-humanoid hybrid after the fight. Just his name. "And he offered me a job."
"His rank is Proctor." Max supplied after it seemed like no one else was going to chime in. "He leads a special operations team based in the Null Void called the 'Rooters'. Their mission -he claims- is to protect the universe from some sort of 'approaching storm', an enemy so powerful no one can defeat it. So he says. But there's not much clarity on who or what this great and terrible enemy is. Ben, you worked with the Rooters before. Do you have anything to add?"
"I did?" Ben was taken aback. "I don't remember working with any black-spotted Plumbers."
"Yes, you did." Max insisted, a little exasperated at his grandson's absentmindedness. "It was sixteen years ago during Kevin's rampage. I remember because you called me specifically to ask if you could trust Servantis to help you take Kevin down without putting him down."
"You can say 'without killing him', Grandpa." Devlin informed his great-grandfather. "We're all mature enough to handle a four letter word. Uncle Ben was afraid the Rooters would kill Kevin."
"Right." Max nodded. "Anyway, Ben, I told you that you could trust Servantis to do what was his own best interest. The Rooters are Plumbers, that makes them technically part of the good guys, but they've skated over the regulations and the oath several times and are overall pretty ambiguous when it comes to moral judgment. They would help you take Kevin down, but once he was down it would be anybody's guess what they did with him after."
"I don't remember this at all." Ben swore.
"Me either." Kevin added.
"Yes, but you weren't exactly in your right state of mind at the time." Gwen reminded him. "Its understandable for you to have holes in your memory."
The car pulled into the hangar of the Plumber's Headquarters in Bellwood and they all filed out.
"Look, I'm not denying that I was a few screws short of a chop-shop back then." Kevin was saying as he climbed out of the car and -very gentlemanly- offered Gwen his hand to help her out. "But generally, even when I am nutty like that, I tend to remember people who try to kill me -'cause I don't take kindly to people who try to kill me."
"That's assuming he did try to kill you." Gwen pointed out. Grandpa did say that Servantis (and by extension the Rooters) didn't always follow the rules and instead acted in their own best interest, that wasn't the same as saying they tried to kill Kevin 11,000. Killing might have been on the menu, but that didn't mean it was the main course.
Devlin cleared his throat. "As fun as this is, listening to you all debate sixteen-year-old conspiracies, Kenny and I are already late for the Weekend Academy. So we're gonna change, grab our stuff, and go."
At his side, Kenny tugged on the ripped part of Devlin's formerly-white dress shirt. "Uh, Dev, are you sure you wanna go this weekend? I mean, I get that becoming a Plumber is important to you and all, but… um. Maybe this weekend we could stay home and, uh, not go to the Academy?"
"Why?" Devlin looked affronted. Intentionally stay home and be truant from the Weekend Academy? What crazy talk is this!?
"Because." And Kenny's eyes did not instantly snap to Kevin before returning to look at Devlin. He cleared his throat and shuffled his feat -still not looking at Kevin at all. Nope. Kevin had nothing to do with this. "Because… of… the reason!"
Kenny might not have been looking at Kevin, but upon finishing his (admittedly vague and flimsy) reasoning, everyone else's attention turned towards the former terrorist-conman-arms dealer. Yeah. How were people gonna take it having the son of Kevin 11,000 attending a Plumbers' Academy? True, Devlin had been in attendance at the Weekend Academy for over a year now, but that was before Kevin 11,000 was released, back when he was just an unfortunate event in the not-to-distant past. Now he was out and about and forcing people to confront the fact that danger was still very much alive and real.
There was a beat of silence.
"I am going to the Academy." Devlin announced after the prolonged pause. "At the very least, I want to talk to Magister Wheels to see if fighting that Terroranchula-whatever can count towards my field experience hours. It'll be nice to get a head-start on the hours requirement before I even get to senior year. You can stay home if you want to."
Devlin left the hangar.
There was another beat of silence.
Then Kenny sighed and followed his cousin out the hanger. "Devlin, wait. I won't let you go alone."
Because that was the way they were. Devlin held, supported, and protected Kenny in his moments of weakness and vulnerability when his parents dragged him in to use as munition in their fights, and Kenny guarded and protected Devlin from their classmates and peers when they decided they had a bone to pick with the son of Kevin 11,000. They guarded and supported each other. That's what they did. They might technically be cousins, but in all practicality, they were brothers.
The boys were out of earshot not even a full minute before Ben snarled a wordless snarl and ran his ringers though his graying hair in frustration. "Grr! Where does Alan get off! Dating my wife! What the kriffing heck!? Has he never heard of the Bro Code!? I mean, Kevin, how would you feel if you got out of the Null Void and found out I was dating Gwen?"
Kevin just raised an eyebrow at the sheer absurdity of the idea. "Does this scenario take place in an alternate reality where you're not first cousins?"
"Bad example." Ben snapped. "Gwen, what if Kevin and I started dating?"
A smile of pure sadistic amusement spread across her lips. "I'd make you let me watch of course! Even in his forties now, Kevin's pretty hot, and you're not so terrible yourself. Kevin would top, though, right? Otherwise I'm not interested."
"Well, I sure as heck not gonna go bottom! Not for Tennyson here." Kevin smirked, adding his own layer to the joke. "You don't mind a little hair-pulling do ya, Bennie old buddy?"
Kevin and Gwen shared a laugh at the utterly and completely horrifying shade of red, then purple Ben turned. "Ya know, I can't deal with you two right now. Go have sex in a car and don't come back until you're ready to act like adults." He stormed out of the hanger as well. "Kriffing rabbits!"
Gwen and Kevin continued to laugh until Ben was well out the room. After a few moments they calmed down.
"Although…" Gwen began thoughtfully. "I am curious what Ally thinks of her dad dating Kenny's mom. Should be interesting…"
"Why? Who's Ally?"
"Alicia Albright. Alan's daughter. She's in Kenny and Devlin's class at the Weekend Academy. Her mother passed away a few years ago. She fell onto a lathe."
Kevin winced. That was not a pretty way to go. He spent most of his life fighting aliens, mutants, and monsters, but still… being beaten to death was still prettier than having your flesh flayed from your bones my any of the many moving parts of a lathe. It was not the kind of industrial machine you wanted to fall on.
"Alan was heart broken for a long time. Its nice to see him out there and dating again. I don't care what Ben says, I hope he and Kai work out. They could be good for each other."
"Uh-huh…" Kevin nodded. It was hard for him to rustle up some sympathy or even just an opinion. He had worked with Alan a couple times over the years, sure. But they were never really friends. Alan never did forgive Kevin for draining him of his power and leaving him half-dead in his own corn field. …and then again about a decade later at the Ryjell space station when he drained Helen, Pierce, Manny, and Alan and left them all half-dead floating in zero-gravity. It was a little hard to feel sorry for a guy who very probably hated your guts (even if he did have every reason to). "But why do you care what the daughter thinks?"
"Because Ally and Kenny like each other." Gwen explained. "But you can't talk to them about it because Kenny's still convinced that girls have cooties and Ally thinks Kenny is an idiot."
From what Kevin had seen of Ben's brat so far, he was inclined to agree with Alan's daughter. But then again, Kevin wasn't exactly the most un-bias of observers. Anything that sprang from Ben's loins must have something wrong with it because it came from Ben. Just like anything that came from Gwen had to be spectacular because it came from Gwen. Kenny was flawed and Devlin was perfect and that was just the way of things in Kevin's mind.
But he didn't want to talk about what their acquaintances had been doing these past sixteen years that he'd been gone. He was out of the Null Void and free, there was a lifetime to catch up on all that. Right now Kevin was in the mood for something else.
"So… sex in a car?" Ben had been the one to suggest it, after all. It was Ben 10,000 approved.
"Stay the heck away from my ride!" Devlin reentered the hanger, a small duffle bag thrown over one shoulder. He had changed out of his ripped suit and dress shirt and was instead wearing perfectly serviceable denim jeans -black- and a t-shirt -also black.
"It was mine first." Kevin reminded the boy as he watched Devlin throw his duffle in the back seat. "I built her from the frame up! She's not just a car she's… she's… She's you big sister!"
Behind Kevin, Gwen face palmed. Oh, yeah, this was gonna go well.
There was a beat of silence in which Kevin and Devlin did nothing but stare at one another.
Then, "Okay. What's her name?"
"What?" Kevin blinked.
"Well, if she's one of your children then you must have given her a name." Devlin explained in his best 'I'm being reasonable and humoring you' voice. "What's my big sister's name?"
"Well, I…" And Kevin realized that he never really did do that guy thing where you name your car, your gun, your whatever. His ride didn't have a name. Unless… "Her name's Ride!"
Behind Kevin, Gwen groaned.
Devlin just smiled in triumph. "You didn't even name her. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Well, I did! Her name's Lexie and she's my baby now. And the first rule for Lexie is no sex in the back seat. Or the front seat. Or the hood. In fact, no sex near her at all. She's a very sensitive and impressionable girl. You two can take your weird kinks somewhere else. You're not welcome here." Then, raising his voice to shout down the corridor, "Oy! Kenny, are you ready yet! If it gets any later we'll miss last call in the Mess."
Neither of his parents mentioned that the boys could have dinner here at home before rushing off to the Academy. Devlin seemed quite determined to get there as soon as possible. Perhaps to put some distance (literal as well as metaphorical) between himself and the newly freed Kevin 11,000. To prove to the world -or maybe just himself- that he did not inherit any of his father's evil or insane tendencies.
"I'm comin'. I'm comin'." Kenny grumbled as he threw his own duffle into the backseat and climbed into the passenger side.
The green and black GTO Judge folded its tired underneath itself as it levitated off the ground and shot out of the hanger to merge into the city's hover-lanes.
Kevin sighed. "I'm never gonna get my car back, am I?"
"Nope." Gwen shook her head.
"I'm gonna end up having to build a new car."
"Yup." Gwen nodded. "So…" She began now that the kids were gone. "Sex in my car?"
Neither of them bothered to remind the other that there was a perfectly serviceable bed in Gwen's room. They had used that this morning, but beds were boring.
…
Swift moved the stethoscope from Phil's chest to his back, listening to his breathing and heart-rate, making sure there were no lasting effects from Feedback's taxer-shock. Leander came up and offered their injured colleague a bag of ice for his groin. Phil snarled wordlessly at the silent Prypiatosian-B hybrid and snatched the ice bag out of his hands. Servantis paced back and forth, observing. He did a great deal of that.
"He's fine." Swift concluded as she packed away the stethoscope and other medical supplies.
"I am not fine!" Phil snarled, clutching the ice to his injured and throbbing crotch. "I swear, the next time I see that long-haired piece of-"
"You will leave Kevin alone." Sevantis commanded. He stopped his pacing and glared directly into Phil's eyes.
There was a beat of silence. Then Phil raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to use your Jedi mind tricks on me? Because I don't think they're working."
"No." Servantis assured him. "I'm just hoping you have the sense to follow a direct order when it is given. But if you prefer I use my abilities on you -I can." Phil didn't need to say anything, the expression on his face was enough to confirm he would follow the order -at least until the main objective was achieved. Servantis turned his attention to Swift with a smile. "I trust your satisfied with Kevin's abilities to preform in a fight."
"Aw, heck, all he did was sucker-punch Phil in the dick. That's not difficult." She waved, dismissing the comment. "That kid on the other hand. The one Kevin went wacky for way back when. He was pretty spry."
"Yes…" Servantis agreed slowly. "Phillip, does your nephew still have a child at the Weekend Academy?"
The Terroranchula-human hybrid paused to think for a moment. It wasn't like he kept in regular touch with his family or stayed up-to-date on their lives. The Rooters didn't exactly allow for time for that. But, still… "I think so. Yeah! Dylan. Dylan Billings. Senior year. He'll be turning eighteen and aging up into the real Academy soon."
"When you're feeling better, would you extend an invitation to young Dylan for me?" Servantis phrased it as a question, but all the Rooters knew a command when they heard one. "Tell him it would count for double his required field hours he can put towards graduating."
…
Dinner was in full swing by the time Kenny and Devlin arrived at the Weekend Academy, the Mess Hall was still full of cadets and full of the chatter and noise of activity. Forks scraped plates, plates clinked, people talked or laughed. All of it swirling together into one big susurus of noise.
The room went silent, however, when Devlin entered.
It started with one person. She was talking to her friend and when her eyes registered him, she cut off mid-sentence. Then her friend looked up and followed her eyes to she what was so distracting and she too froze. Like an invisible wave starting from the door and making its way to the far wall, a hush fell over the crowd.
At Devlin's side, Kenny heaved a sigh. "Yup. This is gonna go well…"
After all, there wasn't a person alive on Earth who wasn't glued to a smart phone. Even if they didn't watch the Pardon Ceremony on the news themselves they would have heard about it on Twitter, Spacebook, Tumblr, Buzz Feed, or whatever. That was the thing with Big News. People didn't actually have to watch it themselves to know about it, Big News had a life of its own. Big News traveled through the very air. And the release and Pardon of Kevin 11,000 was Big News.
For the last year these cadets had attended the Weekend Academy right along side the son of Kevin 11,000 and yeah, they knew who he was. But it was different. Kevin himself was a thing of the past. Locked up in the Null Void, a pocket detention that existed next to, but apart from their own reality, a prison from which there wasn't supposed to be any escape. So, when the son of Kevin 11,000 was in one of your classes, it was weird or whatever, but a person didn't lose to much sleep over it. But now that Kevin was out, suddenly he didn't seem so long ago and far away anymore. He wasn't an 'old people's problem', he was a possibility of very real and present danger. …and Devlin Tennyson was his son.
The question on everyone's minds now was… 'How far from the tree did that apple fall?'
Devlin, for his part, made an effort not to notice everyone's cautious stares. He'd attended Academy with these people for a whole year already, if they didn't realize he was harmless by now they never would. -Except that he wasn't harmless, he managed to beat his opponent at every combat exercise he ever participated in- but that was beside the point! Head held high, refusing to look ashamed or show any weakness, Devlin crossed the Mess and picked up a tray. Kenny wasn't far behind him, if there was one thing that motivated the boy more than protecting his older cousin, it was food.
The two looked around for a place to sit but saw nothing and nobody looked like they were about to scooch over and make room for the son of Kevin 11,000.
Then a young black girl, closer to Kenny's age than Devlin's stood up.
"You're all jerks!" She informed the Mess as she crossed the space between her table and the boys. She grabbed both Kenny and Devlin by their shirts and dragged them over to her table. "You can sit with me."
She shoved them down at her table -they were the only boys there. All of her companions scooted away a bit -under the pretense of making room, of course. But everyone knew it was really to try and put as much distance as possible between themselves and the son of Kevin 11,000.
"Thanks, Ally!" Kenny smiled a goofy grin at her before launching into his food.
Devlin looked behind him and found the table where they usually sat. He made eye-contact with each of the boys there, holding their gaze until each one looked away first before he turned his attention to his meal. Only Billings challenged him back, refusing to be intimidated by the son of Kevin 11,000.
Dylan Billings and Devlin had never gotten along, not since the first training excesses they had together. But it was a silent rivalry. Neither one of them would challenge the other openly, for fear of being expelled from the Academy and they both knew it. So, while they might circle each other and growl, nothing would ever come from their animosity. Not unless they were given an arena free of the rules and expectations of the Academy. Finally, Devlin gave up, deciding it wasn't worth it. Let Billings win the staring contest this round. He turned his attention to his food and his thoughts to bigger problems.
As nice as it was to finally have the chance to get to know his father now and actually get some real and proper training with his powers, it was becoming clear that having Kevin back was actually going to make life -overall- more difficult for Devlin.
He poked at his food, not really all that hungry.
"We saw your dad at the Pardon Ceremony." Kenny was telling Ally. "How long has your dad been dating my mom? Why didn't you warn me?"
Ally cringed awkwardly. "Heh, uh, yeah… Funny that. It started innocent enough. My dad found a rock in one of his fields that looked kinda like an axe head and so he called your mom to come and take a look at it. He didn't want to be ploughing through some ancient Native American burial ground. One thing lead to another and instead of having coffee and talking about rocks and artifacts, they were just having coffee."
"What are we gonna do?" Kenny whined. "What if they fall in love? What if they get married!? That would make you and I brother and sister!"
Devlin snorted over his plate. Of course that would be the thing Kenny was really upset about. Not that nobody warned him that his mother was dating one of this father's friends, or that they would both be at the Pardon Ceremony. No. It was that if their parents kept dating, and if they fell in love, and if they got married, then Kenny and Ally would become siblings. Step-siblings, of course, but still siblings.
"We say something funny, Dev?" Ally asked.
"Hilarious." Devlin grinned a mocking grin at the both of them.
He might have said more, but the noise and den of the Mess was split by the Magister's shout. "Fake-Tennyson! My office. Now!"
For the second time since arriving, every eye in the Mess turned to stare at Devlin. With a groaning sigh, he stood from the table, deposited his tray of untouched food, and followed Magister Wheels out.
Pierce Wheels' office looked more like something one would have in their private home rather than a formal institution. Both Devlin and Kenny had been in the office many times since they started attending the weekend Academy one year ago. Devlin had been surprised to find it carpeted with an Ikea throw-rug, comfy looking armchairs. He would have expected a Magister's office to look more spartan, practical and bare.
But photos lined the walls and crowded the desk -not all of them Academy or even Plumbers related photos. Personal photos, family portraits. One in particular featuring Magister Wheels himself, standing next to a Kineceleran female and a Tetramand male -his sister Helen and her then partner now husband Manny. Next to this photo was one of a hybrid child. One with blue skin and four arms. Helen and Manny's daughter. Pierce was a very proud uncle.
Devlin ignored these as he entered the office. He had seen them all before on his many, many return trips to this office. It seemed impossible for him to go even one weekend without being called in for one reason or another. The thing he just never could seem to figure out was if it was because he was the son of an infamous terrorist and criminal and Magister Wheels felt he needed to be watched closely, or if he really was just a bad kid. Devlin didn't think of himself as a bad kid.
Devlin clasped his arms behind his back, spreading his stance slightly -an acceptable parade rest. "You wanted to see me, sir."
Pierce did not take his seat behind the desk as he usually did during their chats. Instead, as soon as the door was closed behind them, Pierce turned around and placed what Devlin assumed was supposed to be a strong supportive hand on his shoulder. "Devlin, how are you holding up? I heard about Kevin and after what you told me last week, I wanted to check in and see how you're doing."
Ah. That's right. Devlin cringed inwardly.
During the previous weekend, Magister Wheels had invited him into his office and during their talk Devlin let slip that he hated his father and wanted nothing to do with him. If he remembered his own words correctly, he said… 'I'd rather be a fake Tennyson than a real Levin!' Or something like that.
That was only a day (maybe two) before he and Uncle Ben went and let Kevin out of the Null Void to help them rescue his mom. Since then, Devlin came to terms with and admitted to himself that he doesn't actually hate his father. That the shame, frustration, and resentment he feels isn't really directed at Kevin so much as at the way their association darkens people's perceptions of him. The way everyone acted towards him in the Mess being a prime example of this. People shunned him because he was the son of Kevin 11,000.
But that was no more Kevin's fault than it was Devlin's and Devlin didn't hate Kevin for it… Well, okay, maybe he did blame Kevin for it just a little. But that didn't change the fact that Devlin was actually glad of the chance to meet his father and when it was over, when his mother was home safe and it was time for Kevin to be put back in the Null Void, Devlin realized that he didn't want his father to go. In a cathartic release, he confessed to himself as much to the family that he wanted Kevin to stay. That he wanted his father to teach him how to absorb matter and any other important Osmosian things. That they should work on his car together and other normal father-son crap.
Actually, a lot happened between last weekend and this one and Devlin's perceptions and opinions of his father had changed.
"You don't have to worry about that, sir." Devlin assured the Magister. "Kevin and I have come to an understanding. As you said, I'd never met my father before and I couldn't really say I hated him without knowing him first."
Pierce raised an eyebrow. "And now…?"
Devlin paused for a moment, thinking back on this past week with Kevin. Since releasing him on Monday they had saved his mother, defeated a giant robot together, examined Devlin's plans to convert his car to make it space-worthy, and had two lessons in matter absorption. All and all, Kevin wasn't really that bad. But then Devlin remembered that he also interrupted the household dynamic, threw off everyone's schedules, and made demands on his mothers time that sometimes took her away from Devlin. Kevin might not be evil, but he was still far from perfect.
"He… takes some getting used to." Devlin said at last.
Pierce laughed. A true and clear sound of amusement. "'He takes some getting used to'. Oh man, if that isn't the truth! Ah-ha, ha!"
"Sir?" Devlin asked.
Pierce cleared his throat. "Yeah. Kevin can be a little rough around the edges and yeah, he takes some getting used to. …and sometimes he can swing off the deep end and go a little nutty, terrorize the galaxy, absorb his friends, and leave them floating mostly-dead in an abandoned space station…" He paused for a second. "There was a 'but' to this, but I seem to have lost it."
Gee, that sure made Devlin feel better about his father. "Sir, if there's nothing else-"
Clearing his throat, Pierce returned to business. "Anyway, now that Kevin's out and about and in the news again. That means you are gonna be getting more attention than usual as well. I just wanna ask if you're gonna be okay."
"I'll be fine." Devlin assured him, not quite sure yet if he was lying or not. "I can handle anything."
...
