Ben + girly scream= BEST. OPENING. EVER. Lolz And sorry if this isn't great. I don't have the energy to rewrite it…
Chapter 5
Routines. They were burned into his brain. He couldn't forget them, no matter how hard he tried. Wake up, shower, breakfast, recreation, lunch, outside time (generally involved in reading while the rest played a sport of some kind), dinner, and lock down. Alone in his cell again, just as he liked it. It was his favorite time, because he was finally able to think. There was never time amidst the many inmates who either threatened to cut you, beat the living hell out of you, or actually kill you. Such barbarians.
He sighed, leaning over a tattered notebook, adjusting the desk light so he could better see the paper. The majority of it was covered in futile plans for world domination. A mutated something or other here, a flame throwing something else there. The usual. Another portion of the page was dedicated to theories about gene splicing and various DNA combinations he hadn't tried yet. A komodo dragon and an eagle didn't sound like a terrible combination at all.
But what had kept him sane in this hell-hole for five years was a small page committed entirely to what he was going to do to Benjamin Tennyson if he ever managed to escape. The very thought of splicing him with a frog made him smile. His happy thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt clanging of metal on metal.
"Hey, lights out Animo." The guard commanded, pointing the knight stick at him for emphasis. The doctor raised his hands in a surrendering motion and clicked a button at the base of the lamp, shrouding his cell in darkness. He lay down on the hard surface of his bed, having memorized its location. It wasn't hard to learn the whereabouts of everything in the cell after fumbling around in the dark for a few weeks.
He listened to the tap of the guards shoes on concrete slowly disappear as he walked away, stopping only once close enough for him to hear the same command given to another prisoner. Then, he was left to listen to his thoughts, and some idiot on the floor below him trying to talk quietly to his neighbor.
He contented himself with thinking about revenge, finding that he wasn't tired. He stared hard into the ceiling, making out cracks in the dim moonlight that filtered in through a small window. He pretended that the shapes they made were buildings, and that a large dominating crack in the middle was himself, ruling all the smaller, thinner cracks. It was childish, he knew, but there really was nothing better to do with his time.
A sudden scuffling to his left, outside his cell, caught his attention. He sat up and squinted, scanning the darkness for the source of the noise. His eyes met a peculiarly short shadow. Definitely not one of the guards, unless they had started hiring children.
"Who are you?" The doctor demanded, his voice a harsh whispering so as not draw the attention of the night patrol.
"You already know." That voice… Impossible, not in here.
"Benjamin Tennyson…" He growled, a scowl on his face. "Visiting hours were over three hours ago, boy" He expected a cocky answer of some sort from the boy, but was met with silence. He supposed it should have been anticipated as he had arrived in a fashion he never would've thought. Still…
"Have the five years wasted away your mind? Leave!" A slight chuckle from him, but nothing more, so he did the next best thing. "Guard! GUARD!!"
"Sorry to disappoint, but they won't hear you." The silhouette began swinging something around in his index finger. To Animo's horror, it was one of the night patrol's batons. He tried to speak, but all he could manage was a pathetic squeak. The boy seemed contented with waiting; still swinging the baton for entertainment while the doctor composed himself.
"… Why are you here?" Animo managed after a few seconds, coughing to clear his throat. Something was definitely not right. He wasn't acting as predictably as Animo was used to. He should be just itching to make fun of him, not killing guards just for a visit. He squinted his eyes to see into the dark. The boy seemed to be having trouble getting out what he wanted in the first place. Animo continued to wait though, not desiring in the least to find out firsthand how that guard had died.
"… To make a deal." He said finally, voice almost seeming like he had paused on purpose. The doctor waited for the punch line as this was obviously some kind of joke, actually beginning to laugh. Ben just waited, having expected this reaction. His next would be making fun of the fact that he had come to him for help, and then complete denial of his request. Simple. Human. Reaction.
"Has the great Ben 10 really come so low? What could you possibly need my help for anyway?" The answer the doctor received was Ben slowly stepping into the moonlight. He was looking at the ground, but it was clear what was wrong with him, and truthfully, the doctor was shocked.
"Dear God, boy… What happened to you?"
"A bad run-in with some Ectonurite DNA. As you can see, it's killing me and I need you to get rid of it." Ben replied bluntly, obviously beyond subtly. Animo sat there, an eyebrow raised. Help the child who had him imprisoned? Not likely. The fact that he had come to him must mean the boy was serious, but it was so befitting the hero. Like hell he was going to change that.
"Come now, did you really expect me to comply so easily? Tremble in fear as you prove that you mean business? Please. I've met people far worse than you. In here in fact. Now, begone and make sure that the guard you killed isn't traced to my cell." Animo said casually, waving him off.
"It's so easy to sound casual, isn't it? To hide your fear under that deep layer of hatred." The doctor froze in the process of laying down, setting an arm behind him to steady himself. He still looked skeptical, but there was something else in his eyes. A waver that was slowly becoming more pronounced as Ben continued to speak.
"You chose not to acknowledge it, and so it lies in wait, like a predator waiting for its prey to let its guard down. And as soon as you do, it will grab you, consume you and leave nothing but the feeling of pure terror. It will drive you to madness, the powerlessness…." The boy trailed off, catching himself, hand clutching the right side of his face, hiding his eye. He appeared to be in great pain, but the doctor didn't care about that. He was standing now, arms up to protect himself should he need to. This child… he was…
"Shut up!" Ben cried desperately, bent low in an almost defensive stance against himself.
"… You… You're…"
"… Insane?" He finished loudly, breathing to catch himself. His hand lowered, revealing one of his eyes had turned a sharp violet. "Yes! I am, but I've been through this already. Now, care to talk business with a crazy man? I don't know what I might do if you say no again…" He smiled widely, showing his rather sharp incisors, chilling the doctor.
"… The-the bars! You can't harm me through the bars! Now leave!" The smile didn't falter in the slightest as he raised a hand out in front of him. Animo watched him confusedly until he felt himself rising. His arms stuck to his sides as he rose higher until he was foot from the ceiling. He didn't bother hiding his terror this time. He was held there for one more second before being pulled forward into the bars. Most of the pain blossomed immediately in his chest, but his head soon followed in suit as the bars had struck both his temples. He looked up groggily, face to face with Ben.
"You were saying, Doctor…?" He spoke the title mockingly, but the smile had disappeared. Constantly fluctuating emotions. There was no denying the child had gotten himself into something nasty. Animo couldn't respond however, still dazed from the impact.
"Hm, you know, it was kinda rude. You didn't let me tell you what you'll get in return for helping me." He waited patiently for Animo to come back to his senses. All of a sixty seconds.
"Alright boy… I'm listening."
"Your freedom, for starters. I'll take you where you need to go to help me and then I'll let you go, no strings attached. Hell, I'll even help you skip town if you want." Animo watched him suspiciously, unsure whether or not to believe him. He wasn't in his right mind after all.
"I don't think that's all there is." Ben looked at him boredly, knowing exactly what he was implying.
"Well, of course there's always the part where I could've said 'obey or die', but I really didn't want to resort to that…" He glanced at the knight stick and Animo understood. He hadn't actually killed the guard, probably more or less just knocked him out and took the weapon he was carrying for himself. A scare tactic. Clever boy.
"… Very well." The doctor said with a relenting sigh that sounded more relieved. "I'll help you."
He felt himself suddenly released and promptly fell to his knees on the ground, gravity pulling him forward into the bars again. He sat up and rubbed one of his temples, feeling the headache coming on. As he continued to right himself, Ben produced a key from seemingly nowhere and unlocked the cell, pushing aside the bars with minimal effort.
"Truce?" He said, holding out his hand. Animo looked at it as he stood, weighing the pros and cons of the situation. He decided against attempting to overpower him after receiving a rather chilling wink from the boy.
"For now." He replied irritably. Ben nodded at him and began to walk, hands in his jacket pockets, the knight stick dropped, its purpose served. He shook his head once and muttered something unintelligible. Animo grimaced, walking a few feet behind him. The boy appeared to be sulking now, done communicating with who ever, or what ever, was in his head; most likely trying to block it out. Maybe, just maybe, if he was distracted enough, the boy wouldn't notice if he tried to accelerate the process. Whatever DNA he said he'd been spliced with was slowly killing him and a gentle push might just send him over the edge…
Animo smiled at Ben's naivety. Never make a deal with someone who wanted you dead.
A sudden crash broke Gwen from her thoughts. She whipped around, hands wrapped in manna and held out in front of her, battle ready. She quickly dropped them, placing one on her face as she breathed a sigh of relief. Kevin had managed to stumble on one of the many articles of clothing littering the floor and had tried to catch himself on the remains of a nightstand. He had remained standing, but the poor piece of furniture had fallen apart at his touch. He looked apologetically at her, before turning to the door, suddenly alert.
She made to walk towards him, but he held up a hand. He then closed the same hand but held up one finger, telling her "one minute" as he disappeared around the corner. She nervously shifted from leg to leg anxiously waiting for Kevin to return, hoping that whatever he had heard wasn't dangerous. She watched as he returned, quickly using the door frame to whip himself around and press against the wall. Gwen was at his side in an instant, mimicking his pose.
"Well?" She hissed, looking up at him expectantly.
"Five of them, all with weapons." He panted, heart racing in his chest. It really was a miracle that they hadn't seen him.
"It doesn't sound so bad…"
"Three of them have guns." Gwen felt her heart begin to race as well.
"Can we sneak by them?"
"They're coming this way." This became obvious to her as she began to hear their voices. It was disturbing. They weren't really saying anything. It was just more or less moaning, laughing or random words and phrases.
"Maybe I can-"
"Don't." Kevin told her. His expression was serious, like he knew something he wasn't telling her. He complied before she could ask the question. "Your manna shield can't stop a bullet." She almost looked offended. He sighed and continued as fast as he could, trying to quietly force the broken door closed as he spoke.
"Yes, you can stop lasers, but haven't you noticed you can see them coming? The beams travel slower than a bullet. It's more of a solid plug. That tiny piece of metal has more force behind it than an ion beam. Hell, they're made to penetrate armor." He stopped, realizing something. He pressed his ear to the door, listening hard.
"Hear that?" He asked, looking unamused. Gwen listened for a few seconds.
"I don't hear anything…?"
"Exactly." A gunshot rang through the air, punching a small hole in the door inches from Kevin's head. He yelped and fell backward, quickly scrambling to his feet. He looked around, eyes settling on a refrigerator. He pushed it over and absorbed the slightly rusty metal on the back.
"Kevin!" Gwen shouted, hiding behind a wall as more bullets riddled the door. When it appeared weak enough, fists began to pound the door, punching chucks out of it. Kevin peeled his eyes away from the antique oak, searching for another way out. He now had a better chance of fighting them off, but he wasn't bullet proof either. A point blank shot would definitely not bode well with his quickly diminishing chances of survival.
He looked around and, after another snap from the door, figured making their own way out was their only option. He backed up, aiming his shoulder at the back of a closet. With a roar that startled Gwen, he ran at the wall and knocked it down much more easily than he expected. The extra momentum drove him into another wall that refused to give way, stopping him face first.
"You okay?" Gwen asked, following him through. She paused a moment to throw a ball of energy through the hole in the door, and was rewarded with a shout of pain.
"I'll live." He replied, a hand rotating his jaw. "We need to keep moving."
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Gwen said, examining the room they were in. Kevin looked at her, an eyebrow raised in question. "Really? Kevin, everyone in this building probably knows we're here now!"
"That shouldn't be a problem. We won't see too many people wielding guns."
"How can you say that for sure?" Gwen asked, listening as the noises changed from trying to get in, to trying to kill each other. That energy ball must have upset their delicate alliance.
"Guns aren't legal here. And they're hard to get. Now if we were in Texas, that would be a different story…"
"Not funny." She said, looking irritated. Another gunshot rang out, silencing them both. They remained still, listening, trying to discern what was happening. Three more shots rang out, then stillness prevailed. Kevin, after a moments hesitation, pressed an ear to the wall, while Gwen promptly sat in meditative pose. She reached out with her mind and tried to feel the minds of the men. After a minute or so, Kevin realized what she was doing.
"Well?" He asked, looking at the glow her eyes emitted, even with the lids closed.
"They're dead." She responded with a frown. "But there are more people on the upper levels. I can't establish a baseline thought with any of them other than anger and little fear here and there."
"I think I'd be pretty pissed to if this was happening to my neighborhood." Kevin responded humorlessly. "But what was up with that group? We found the emitter destroyed. Shouldn't they be, you know, normal?"
"I don't think it stops there." Gwen returned to herself and looked up at him sadly. "It's brain damage Kevin. These people have been exposed too long. They don't accept this level of reality anymore."
"So… we're too late?"
"Don't say that. It might also be just a lasting after effect. There's still a chance that if we destroy them all, everything will return to normal." Kevin looked at her confusedly. Gwen sighed. "Let's just worry about finding the emitters for now." Another crash outside caught her attention, but this one was different. It sounded more like…
The building began to shake violently, knocking over any still standing furniture. Kevin heard the mirror in the small bathroom to his left shatter. He braced himself against the wall as it began to tip precariously to the left, moving further and further until it collided with the building next door.
The collision shook Gwen and Kevin to their cores, nearly throwing them out as the foundations cracked and collapsed. Kevin actually had to grab onto Gwen's wrist so she wouldn't be thown into the broken window. He soon didn't have to worry about the window as the entire wall broke apart, giving them a clear view of the road. He thought for a second of the possible way out, but the rest of the building could fall at any moment. Then again, they were no longer safe where they were.
"What the HELL are they doing out there?!" He shouted angrily, pulling himself and Gwen around the wall he had braced himself against to lean on.
"It sounds like someone crashed a car into the side of the hotel!" Gwen responded shakily, both yelling over the creakings the building was making. She could protect them both from the entire collapse of the building, but what about the other people?
Kevin scowled, fuming silently. They must have hit the corner just right the have it completely fall over. And the damn construct workers who built the hotel must have gotten lazy in laying the foundation. They hadn't checked if there was an underground pocket of loose soil. It's amazing the building had lasted this long at all, and their shoddy work was about to kill them both.
"What should we do?!" Gwen yelled, squeaking as the ground cracked beneath them and fell a few inches.
"Leave!" He looked back to the hole and Gwen understood. They made to run when a series of shouts caught their attention. "Shit! Get down!" He cried, knocking a pipe from the air that had coming flying at his head from around the corner. Four of them ran in, screaming their lungs out at them, most likely having heard them yelling.
Gwen, reluctantly, shot two orbs in their direction, both smacking into the chests of their attackers, knocking them down and winding them. Kevin wasn't having that easy of a time himself. One of them had managed to distract him long enough for the other to whack him across the back with a bedpost hard enough to break. Even through the metal, he was pretty sure that was going to hurt later.
With a satisfied smirk, he got his revenge by punching the man full on in the jaw. He heard the crack is it fractured and caught him before he fell to the ground, unconscious.
The last person, a woman in her mid-thirties, held a crowbar close to her chest, seeming to realize she had no ground in this situation. But logic be damned. She leapt at Kevin who dodged and put a rough chop to the back of her neck. She too was caught before she hit the ground.
The building gave another lurch and fell a few more feet, forcing a crack down the middle of the room. Kevin grimaced. If it fell anymore, there would be no way out. He looked to Gwen, ready to tell her to make a break for it, when he noticed her trying to lift the winded madmen with her powers.
"Gwen, no time!" She refused to respond, focusing solely on saving these men who had now become her responsibility. Kevin growled and followed her example, shouldering both man and woman before running after her. The hole, however, now required them to crawl out.
Gwen went first, pulling herself through the hole with her arms. She quickly sat up, remaining on her knees for leverage as she used her powers to pull the first man out. Kevin quickly dragged the next man closer so she could more easily wrap her power under his arms and rescue him too.
"Hurry!" Kevin shouted, pulling both man and woman closer. They were yanked out at the same time. Now it was Kevin's turn. He began to crawl under when the building gave yet another loud moan. Something cracked and he shut his eyes tight, waiting to be sheared in half when he felt Gwen catch his shoulders. He landed hard on his stomach as the gap fell together, rubble and rebar showering them with dust.
Kevin turned over to look at what nearly killed him, panting heavily. He placed a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating rapidly against his rib cage, before falling back and laying on the pavement to better catch his breath.
"Come on Kevin. We're not done yet." Gwen said, already standing and holding a hand out to Kevin. He took it, pulling himself up, surprised at her upper body strength. It was true, they weren't quite safe yet. The building towered over them, covering the view of the night sky, pushing against the building across from it. His eyes traveled down from the building to the ground, eyes falling on the attacking vehicle. His heart leapt in his chest as he realized it was on fire.
"Yeah, we need to move. Now." He responded urgently, picking up the male and female again. Gwen looked down to pick up the two men, but failed to find them. They must have recovered and ran off while she had saved Kevin. She shook her head, and began to run toward the back of the building, Kevin keeping close. All seemed well until, at the front of the building, the car exploded.
Metal shrapnel shot in every direction, piercing what ever it was closest to. Gwen put up a shield behind them, blocking most of the deadly shards but one thin piece was traveling fast enough to run right through her solidified manna and into Kevin's right shoulder. He bit back the yell and continued forward faster. There were bigger things to worry about, like the collapse of a large hotel upon his head.
They made it, just barely, ducking behind a smaller facility in the back. Gwen slid down wall, panting, feeling the euphoria her adrenaline was providing. She smiled wearily, looking to Kevin.
"That was really close, huh-?" She stopped, noticing the pain on Kevin's face as he gingerly touched his shoulder. She stood back up immediately, rounding to his back. She couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped her lips as she saw the wound. The sharp bar stuck out at a downward angle, blood trailing down the sides of it until it hit the end where it dripped off. The dark red liquid was coming out much to fast, due to his accelerated heart rate.
"It's nothing…" Kevin tried to console, playing it off so she wouldn't worry. He reached back to try and pull it out when Gwen gently blocked his hand.
"You have to leave it. If we pull it out now, you'll just bleed out faster." He nodded, letting his arm fall back to his side. He looked at the two people he had carried. They lay sprawled out on the ground, oblivious to the world around them. He sighed, wondering where his sense of uncaring went when the answer wrapped her arms around his unwounded one.
"Kevin, I'm so sorry…"
"It wasn't your fault. Don't worry about it." Gwen opened her mouth to protest that statement when her gaze fell upon something that left her mouth open in surprise. Kevin looked at her for a moment before following her gaze.
His eyes fell upon a teen with messy brown hair and a green jacket. He squinted, wanting to be sure what he saw was correct when he saw who was a few feet in front of him.
"Is that…?" Gwen asked, tone dancing around the edges of anger.
"Yup." Kevin responded, a smirk on his face. Ben had finally gotten to the point where he didn't care how it happened, he just wanted to be better. He had to be proud of the kid, braking Animo out of jail with raising a single alarm. At least, not yet. He made to remark on this when he realized Gwen was no longer clinging to his arm. Rather, she was calling Ben's name. It didn't occur to him why she hadn't left his side to fetch him, when he remembered, through a failing of his legs, that she was trying to watch him as well.
Ben seemed to hear her through the sound of sirens on the other side of the road, and looked. His expression, at first sheepishly surprised, turned to sudden seriousness. He darted over to them, his prisoner temporarily forgotten. Kevin wasn't quite sure what had him so worked up, when he finally heard screaming behind him. There must have been a dozen of them and by the sound of things, they were pissed.
He tried to stand, to help Gwen fight them off, but it was no good. He'd lost too much blood. His shield fell first, receding into nothingness, making him ever more vulnerable. But it wasn't himself he was worried about.
Bodies were flying left and right, smacking into walls and light poles with seemingly no help, leaving dents and cracks in their wake. Some of them even appeared to be choking, clutching at their throats, clawing at the air just trying to take a breath.
Those who remained unaffected continued to batter at a shield Gwen had thrown up to protect herself and Kevin. They cried obscenities at them, lashing out with makeshift weapons. Some of them even spat at her.
Kevin tried again, desperately to help her, but he could no longer even hold a shield. His vision wavered before him, as if he were sitting at the bottom of a pool. He clung to consciousness, but before it left him, he saw something he could do nothing about. A male with an old revolver had circled back around Gwen and was aiming for her head, expression victorious. He tried to make a sound, anything to warn her, but nothing seemed to come out and right as the world went dark around him, a bang resounded, echoing in his head until he knew no more.
Ha ha! A sooner update. :3 I'm feeling it again and hopefully this little cliffy will tide you over until I can work on another chapter. Enjoy the suspense while it lasts, my friends!