Phew, this one's long.......final chapter of Part 1. Enjoy!!!
Chapter VIII – Friends, Family, and Foes
"Can't you drive any further? We can't see out here!"
"No, I'm not gonna drive into those trees; I ain't taking another scratch on my ride once I've gotten rid of the last ones."
"Well, how do you expect us to find Jen?"
"I don't know. You tell me!"
Gwen sighed as the two teenagers argued before yelling, "For the last time, do I have to babysit you two?!" She held up her hand, full of manna, to emphasize her point, which put an end to their debate. "Kevin Ethan Levin, you stay here. Ben, you turn into one of your aliens and find her. She's somewhere in the forest, up ahead." Ben just nodded before turning the Omnitrix's dial and slamming it down. "BigChill…" the Necrofriggian breathed before spreading its moth-like wings and flying off into the night.
There was a slight, awkward silence between the two for a moment, before Kevin looked up and asked, "So, any reason why you asked me to stay behind?"
Gwen nodded. "I wanted to ask you. In the car. For a moment you seemed quite hung up back there. Is something wrong?"
Kevin didn't answer immediately, but turned and looked towards where BigChill had flown, as though the foliage had posed a more interesting topic. Then he said, "I've been thinking. About Jennifer. Don't - don't you think it's strange she has such powers? I mean, I've never seen any alien species that looks like her, not to mention that she doesn't seem to know anything about her heritage." What he had really meant to ask wasn't this, but he didn't want to go straight to it just yet.
Gwen pondered the question for a moment. "You're right," she answered. "Although….I don't think she's lying, but it doesn't make much sense either, at least for now," she looked at him and flashed a grin. "Not that you'd know, smart-guy." Kevin gave a sheepish smile, and Gwen laughed.
"Well…there's something else, too." Gwen looked at him, curious. "Would you say….that Jen and I look alike?"
Gwen stared at him for a few seconds before finding her voice again. "Are you saying…?"
"That's what I think." He sighed and looked upwards. "Something about her powers…controlling energy…it makes me think, remember what happened when I absorbed all that alien DNA from the Omnitrix?"
"Yeah, I get that. You turned into a mutated form of all the 10 aliens in there."
"And if I've never seen that species of alien before, you think that - something similar might've happened?"
Gwen saw that he looked worried, or even concerned. "But there's no other Omnitrix out there, is there? Azmuth would've at least told Ben, or Grandpa Max if there was."
Kevin shrugged. "Maybe I'm just overanalyzing things." In the moonlight she saw that he wore a sad expression on his face. "And all this time, I didn't know…she didn't even tell me…"
Gwen put a hand on his shoulder. "If your mother didn't tell you, there must've been a reason why. Whatever it was, it would've been to protect the both of you."
Kevin turned and looked at her. "How did you know I was thinking about that?"
"Because I know you," she replied. "Don't worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Besides, each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34) She looked at him, and Kevin's smile widened.
For a while, they simply sat together and stared at the moon, which was reaching its full circle. Then Gwen said, "Don't you think Ben's been gone a while? Maybe we should go check it out." As if in answer, a number of explosions sounded, far ahead.
Kevin nodded. "You're right. We'd better go." He now had a determined expression. "And I'll want to have a few words with Jen." He saw Gwen's expression, and added, "Not harsh ones." Gwen grinned. "You gonna drive through?"
"No matter what you say, I ain't driving my ride in there. That's final."
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Big Chill flew silently through the forest canopy, staying low as to avoid unwanted attraction, but high enough to see where he was going.
Further ahead, he spotted smoke, and to his surprise, wolf howls. Had Jennifer seen him? She couldn't have, not from this far. But she had. And she needed help.
"Let's see if I can speed things up." He pressed the Omnitrix on his chest and transformed into Jetray.
"Jetray!" The Aerophibian soared higher, and sped off with a huge burst of speed.
The forest was surprisingly almost quiet when he arrived. He looked to his left and saw Jen as a wolf, pinned to the ground by…a Vulpimancer?
There were people surrounding the two of them everywhere; men in black jackets; with a strange, awkwardly shaped lightning bolt on each right shoulder. One in particular wore the same, only his jacket was silver. To his left was a big machine, with a long antenna sticking out from the middle.
Ben noiselessly flew down into the trees, careful to make no one notice, then transformed back into himself. Quietly, he moved to the back of a particularly thick tree, dangerously close to the clearing.
"You know, I'm surprised you managed to evade us for so long," the man was saying, walking towards Jen. "But did you really think you could escape from me, The Merger?"
Jennifer looked at him and growled, but her eyes weren't steely; she wore a serious but soft expression, as though she wasn't angry.
"In any case, it doesn't matter now. Since our experiments were not able to be…completed back then, we'll just have to do them now."
Jen's eyes widened as he stepped closer, but remained stationery, growling.
"Come on, now," the man said impatiently. "And be a good dog."
Jen stopped for a moment, then, without warning, a burst of light emanated from her claws, shoving aside the Vulpimancer, but not harming. Jen got up and looked at the circle of people, who had raised and aimed their laser guns at her. Her eyes turned and settled…on him.
The two stared at each other, and Jen's face turned from caution to surprise.
"Uff!" she barked. Ben frowned.
"I'm here," Ben whispered. "Stay!"
But Jen repeated the bark, and looked towards the throng of people, then back at him again.
What was she trying to tell him? He glanced at the circle of men. So far, they hadn't seen him.
Then he realized the Vulpimancer was looking straight at him.
Of course, he thought. What was he thinking? The Wildmutt couldn't see, but it could smell him there from a mile.
The Vulpimancer roared, and leaped towards him, but was knocked aside by Jen. The wolf snarled and tried to pin it to the ground, but the Vulpimancer was stronger and easily batted her away. Jen collapsed on her side, and she morphed back into her human self. Her eyes were closed.
"No!" Ben yelled.
The Vulpimancer turned towards him and charged. Instinctively he turned the dial on the Omnitrix and raised his arm to slam it down, but he was too slow and the Vulpimancer knocked him flat.
"An intruder?!" the man in the silver jacket exclaimed in rage.
The Vulpimancer turned and growled, then in a flash of red light transformed…into Albedo.
"And not just any intruder," he chuckled with an evil grin. "Gentlemen, this….is Ben Tennyson."
The group of people looked at each other in surprise. Albedo's smile widened.
But he hadn't realized that in the short time he had taken to speak, Ben had been able to get control of his Omnitrix.
"HUMOUNGASAUR!" The large reptilian alien stood up, shaking the ground with his weight. The men panicked and fled.
"No, stop! What do you think you're doing?!" The Merger yelled furiously, as he watched his comrades depart. It was no use. They were too scared.
Ben stared at Albedo, who had calmly turned to face him.
"So, Ben Tennyson, I finally will get my revenge." Albedo said, his voice filled with cold hatred.
"There are things more important for me to deal with than you," Humoungasaur growled. Albedo just grinned, and disappeared in a flash of red light.
Humoungasaur was blasted with green laser-beams and ducked for cover. He looked up and saw Albedo above him as Jetray.
"But…how?" he exclaimed in confusion. "Didn't Azmuth remove your Omnitrix?"
"Oh he did," Albedo chuckled. "But thanks to the DNA I collected in the past during my work with that wretched Azmuth, along with some help from my friend here," he glanced at the man in the silver jacket, "I can now transform into any alien I please." He transformed again and sent a freezing blizzard towards Humongasaur, freezing him in place. "See?" Albedo said as BigChill. He sucked in a huge amount of breath, ready to freeze.
Out of nowhere, a ball of pink light shot from the sky and hit him, and he plummeted to the ground.
"Ben? Are you alright?" Ben saw Gwen and Kevin running down a nearby slope on Gwen's manna steps.
"Jen!" Kevin ran towards the girl and lifted her up halfway. "What happened?"
"She's okay. Just unconscious." As though in accordance, Jen's eyes opened. "Safe yet?" she mumbled, shaking her head. "Not yet," Kevin responded. "Hold on –
"I could not agree more." Kevin cried out as he was frozen in place. Gwen and Ben turned, but were immediately trapped in ice. Albedo swooped down, intangible, and grabbed Jen from him, landing beside the machine. Jen struggled, growling, but to no avail. Albedo cruelly dropped here down, making her wince.
"Leave her there," The Merger said. He walked to the right side of the machine and pulled the lever.
Kevin's head was still unfrozen, and he strained his neck to see what was happening. "No, stop it!" he yelled frantically.
Jen was blasted with energy, which raised her higher and higher. She struggled with the shock, her eyes tightly closed shut. Her pendant was slowly lifted upwards by the energy, and it was making a high whining sound.
With a flash and a loud explosion, Jen was flung to the side as her necklace was torn from her neck. The Merger grabbed it triumphantly.
The Merger turned and looked towards the three, who were immobilized by the ice. "Finish them," he casually stated to Albedo. Albedo transformed into Chromastone, grinning. He raised his arms together, gathering a huge amount of energy, enough to kill.
Painfully, Jen pulled herself upwards to a kneeling position, and saw what was about to occur. But she didn't cry out, or scream. Her eyes narrowed like a wolf, and she lunged towards Albedo just before he released the energy. Albedo exclaimed angrily as the energy bolt shot away from its targets, but was near enough to break the ice that encased the three. Some of the excess energy blasted in front of him, sending both him and Jennifer flying.
Albedo got up and, furious, prepared to attack again, but was halted by Ben, who had transformed into Goop and had wrapped around him. Albedo twisted and blasted Goop away with a burst of energy.
Jen stood up, her eyes flinty. She transformed into her wolf form – and nothing happened.
Jen frowned and tried again. Still nothing. She couldn't do it. Albedo saw her situation, and raised his arm, but was attacked by Swampfire., and Gwen's manna bolts. He looked at Jen and said, "Go! We'll be OK!"
Jen hesitated, then said, "I'm sorry." She turned and ran into the trees, into the vast forest.
"Jennifer!" Kevin yelled. But he was too late; she was gone.
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Jennifer ran till she could run no more, and stopped at a nearby stream, panting.
Everywhere was dark, she realized. She could hardly see anything. She couldn't hear animals, or smell them, either, unlike a wolf.
Not like a wolf.
Jennifer bent down sadly, not crying outside, but on the inside.
No longer a wolf…..
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Gee, I wonder if this gives anyone a dun-dun-dun feeling. Sorry about the sudden story-ending change. I just realized that it'll mess up the start of the next installation. Next part to be posted soon! (hopefully) R&R please?
