Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Ch2: Guinea Pig.
Emerald eyes gazed upwards as Ben tried to block out Albedo's boring speech. The five-year-old wasn't worried about being... Well, a five-year-old. Not since Albedo started talking.
It was strangely comforting, the cliché bad guy speech. Ben had heard it at least a billion times. It was always the same 'I'm gonna take over the world, I'll end you, I'll take the Omnitrix' story.
This time Albedo was going on about 'Tests, hidden secrets and how he was oh so much better than Azmuth'. Ben stopped listening a while ago actually. In fact he was getting bored and wan-
"Are you even listening to me?!"
Surprised Ben's head jerked up. "Yes?" He said sending Albedo a wide-eyed look.
Albedo put his hands on his hips and looked down at Ben, an indignant look on his face. "No, you weren't."
"Yes I was!"
"No, you weren't." Albedo quietly muttered, rolling his eyes.
Ben still heard him. "Were too!"
"Were not!
"Were too!"
"We- Urgh, unbelievable." Albedo muttered slapping his forehead in annoyance. "Nevermind Tennyson. It was silly of me to think your underdeveloped human brain could keep up with me. This is pointless."
"This is pointless." Ben repeated making in a high-pitched, ridiculous sounding voice.
Albedo raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"
"What was that?" Ben repeat a pleased smile on his small face as he echoed Albedo's words in the same ridiculous tone as before.
"Are..." The white-haired version of Ben frowned. "Are you repeating everything that I say?"
"Are you repeating everything that I say?"
"Stop it!"
"Stop it!"
"It's not funny!"
"It's not funny!"
"You're acting like a foolish child!"
This time Ben didn't repeat what Albedo said. The little boy actually paused. "Well," Ben frowned in that special adorable way that only young children managed to pull off. "whose fault is that?!" He tried to sound challenging, but that was a hard task now that his voice sounded so young and small again.
Albedo didn't bite to the bait, but neither did he start gloating again, he was too pleased that he'd gotten Ben to quit copying him. "Hah!"
But the toddler wasn't finished.
"Hah!" Ben repeated smirking mischievously.
Albedo's face fell. "Not again..." He groaned.
"Not again."
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Albedo had made Ben young and vulnerable again for a different reasons. Perhaps it was time to remind the child. The white-haired alien grit his teeth. "Don't you dare start again, or I'll..."
"Don't you dare star again, or-"
SLAP!
The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed throughout the entire laboratory and Ben froze. His five-year-old body going rigged. Already large emerald eyes and had widened and filled with tears, tears which Ben didn't allow to fall.
Ben might be stuck as his five-year-old self, both physical and mentally, but he still had all his memories and sure he thought like a little kid now, but he still had some of the traits he had as when he was sixteen.
He hadn't cried since the day he lost Feedback and that wasn't gonna change. No matter how much his face hurt.
A satisfied smirk formed on Albedo's face when he saw a hand-shaped bruise already starting to form on the small child's face. "You're not here for fun and games, Tennyson." He said reaching for Ben. Albedo's grin widened when Ben tried to shy away from him. He cupped Ben's chin, his grip cold and cruel as he forced the boy to meet his red gaze.
"It's time we get to business."
-Ben-10-Omniverse-
"It'll be alright, Carl." Max tried to reassure his son. He was at their home along with Rook and a whole team of Plumber agents. Rook was currently leading the team that searched room for any kind of clues as to where Ben had been taken too.
The house was a mess.
Furniture was knocked over, windows were shattered, the coffee table was splintered into multiple pieces and the curtains had been ripped to pieces by sharp.
The couch had been put back up, which was where Carl was sitting now, his shaking wife in his arms and his father besides him.
Carl met his father's gaze for just a small moment before looking away. "Yeah..." He sighed, still rubbing his wife's back trying to console her. "Ben's strong and he'll-" The man swallowed trying to block the image of Khyber's snarling, red-eyed beast from his mind. "He'll be fine." Carl said his voice strained.
Rook walked over to them. "Magister Tennyson, we have successfully taken samples and photographed the evidence. The computers are scanning the galaxy for Ben's DNA as we speak." The Revonagander's tone was far more subdued than normal.
Max nodded, he moved to get up but hesitated. He looked back at his son and daughter-in-law. "Carl, Sandra, it...-"
"It's alright, Max." Sandra surprised them all by pushing herself away from Carl and getting up. She looked at Max who was pleasantly surprised to find a less hunted look in her eyes than in Carl's. She smiled shakily and nodded at her father-in-law. "Go get our boy back."
Max nodded grimly before following Rook and the other Plumber Agents out of the house.
While the other agents went to the group shuttle, Rook and Max headed to Rook's truck and got inside. "This..." Rook said slamming the door shut. "if Khyber is the one behind this low move," He gripped the steering wheel hard in anger. Kidnaping Ben was one thing, after all Ben had been kidnaped before, but to use the boy's parens as leverage? How barbaric. "we should search the areas previously used by him."
"Yes." Max nodded grimly. They wouldn't rest till they found Ben.
-Ben-10-Omniverse-
After having been stuck on that metal table for so long, Ben expected himself overjoyed at being freed from it.
He wasn't.
The moment the metal clasps were removed from around his arms and legs he had rolled from the table and attempted to activate the Omnitrix. Ben raised his hand to hit the dial, only to have Albedo grab his arm and yank him upwards.
Albedo lifted him from the ground by his arm and roughly threw him into a chair that the villain had prepared. It was very similar to a dentist's chair.
Obviously it wasn't a normal dentist chair. That became clear the moment Ben landed on it and a metal band shot out of it and wrapped around Ben's waist, more metal clasps shot out from the armrests and wrapped around his arms.
Now made absolutely immobile Ben stared up at Albedo with wide, fearful eyes. "Um... What now? You gunna kill me?"
Albedo busied himself with putting his equipment on a metal tray. "Don't be ridiculous." He said turning to the toddler, for to amused by the fearful look on Ben's face. "You're a guinea pig, Ben, and obviously I need to research the results."
"What are you talking about?"
Albedo rolled his eyes, again annoyed by the boy's ignorance. "A guinea pig, Tennyson. As in test subject. The Omnitrix is the most advanced piece of technology in the universe and Azmuth is letting you have it. I assume Azmuth wouldn't test it on himself so that-"
"No, no, I already know all that." Ben interrupted him slowly shaking his head. "But I don't know what you mean by research."
Oh how gloriously naive. Albedo smirked and turned around so Ben got a full view of the equipment the albino had set out.
The five-year-old's eyes widened in horror when Ben saw the syringes, scalpels, needles and various other medical equipment.
"I think I should start with a blood sample." Albedo said grabbing a syringe and tapping the needle. "And some tissue samples... Of your human self and your 10 first aliens. I want to see what made them different to be your first accessable aliens, did it have to do with your DNA? Your blood? Or was it something else entirely?"
Ben was rapidly shaking his head, squirming away from Albedo who was already standing besides the chair. "No, no, no!" The toddler almost shrieked in fear. "Bluckic and Driba already did my check up! Nothing wrong this time!"
"Those idiots do tests to see if the Omnitrix has any side effect?" Albedo asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
Ben nodded vigorously. "Every three months!" He cried out. "Last one was last week so you really, really, really don't need to use that needle!"
SLAP!
Unlike like the first time when Albedo slapped him, Ben didn't freeze. The five-year-old continued trying to squirm out of his bonds, determined to get away from his tormentor.
SLAP!
This time Albedo not only slapped the child, but also pinned him to the chair. "Listen to me, BRAT!" the albino growled his face inches above Ben's who was looking up at him, his emerald eyes wide and filled with tears that didn't fall. "I am the one in charge! Not you! And we'll do as I say!"
With that said Albedo stabbed Ben's arm with the needle and began taking the first blood sample.
Ben bit his lip to stop himself from crying out. The toddler sniffled as he blinked a lot to keep the tears at bay. "Y-You're a real jerkface!"
"Hmm." Albedo nodded putting the vial with the blood sample on the tray. "If that is what you think now, I dread what you'll think of me once I start taking tissue samples."
The toddler could do nothing but whimper.