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 Nine: Into the Void

"Ew. I've got bits of Argit in me." Pierce shuddered.

Helen offered her brother a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

"Alright, now that we're all up to speed…" Kevin took charge of the group. He walked over to the Null Void controls and started punching in coordinates, programing their point of arrival when they zapped themselves into the Null Void. "Anyone who has to pee, go now because we're not gonna have time to stop. Tennyson, you stay here."

"What!?" Ben looked insulted. Not surprised that Kevin wanted to take care of this himself without his backup, but legitimately offended that Kevin was specifically singling him out to exclude from this mission. He was the Hero of the Universe, after all, and this was most definitely a Hero Time. "No! That's my nephew Servantis is using. Like heck am I just gonna wait here!"

"And it is my son!" Kevin snarled back. "My son. Mine. And Devlin isn't your nephew, he's your second cousin -don't forget that! What's more, you don't know Servantis. I do. He's sneaky, he's manipulative, he has no problem using kids to do his dirty work, he's got an almost fanatical obsession with seeing his 'Coming Storm' dead, and- …one other thing." Kevin finished lamely. "So, yeah, you're staying here. So's Gwen."

"I am?" She looked at him, her expression communicating that he better have one hell of a good reason for making her stay behind on a mission to reclaim her son.

There was a beat of silence in which Kevin and Gwen just stared at each other. The tension in the room was palpable.

Then, "Baby, can I talk to you for a sec?"

She grabbed her lover by the hair -"Ow! Ow! Babe, that hurts! Ow!"- and dragged him out of the Null Void chamber and into the hall. Gwen glanced at everyone watching them with prying, expectant eyes, and shut the door in their faces. This was a private conversation.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

Kevin sighed, avoiding eye contact. He didn't know what to say exactly or where to start. "I, uh… I haven't told you everything."

"Gasp! You haven't? I had no idea!" She scoffed, hands on her hips, glaring up at him from their hight difference. "What's going on, Kevin? I want to know the truth and I want to right now. Or else you're not going into the Null Void after Devlin. I am. You can stay home and knit while I go on a mad destructive rampage for the sake of my baby."

Heaving a second, heavier sigh Kevin rested his head on her shoulder. "This is hard for me, Babe." He confessed. "Just yesterday I learned that I'm not who I thought I was -or even what I thought I was. That my whole life has been a lie. Nothing but a cover story for a mission I didn't even know I was on. Everything. How I escaped the Null Void as a kid, how I learned to barter weapons and repair alien tech… Heck! Even my parents! Devin Levin doesn't exist -never existed. He's not real, and… and… I named my son after him!"

Kevin suppressed the urge to sob while Gwen stroked his hair. Even when she was frustrated with him, it was still safe for him to be weak around her.

"Are you saying you're not really half-alien?" She asked. "That you're another artificial hybrid like the others?"

"No." He shook his head, straightening. Kevin wiped his eyes and ran a hand through his long dark hair. "I'm not like them. I wasn't created. I was born. But I'm not half-alien. I'm all Earthling, I'm just not human. I'm a mutant. That's what Osmosians are. We're mutants. We've got something Servantis calls the OSM-1 gene and that's what gives us powers. Its the reason why I can do the things I can do. But Osmosians aren't aliens. There's no such place as Osmos V."

Gwen reached up to stroke his face. Caressing from his left temple down to his chin marked by the X-shaped scar. "Kevin… I already knew that."

"You did?" He blinked at her, disbelieving.

"Well, some of it. When I was pregnant and getting sick… while you were busy panicking and blaming yourself, I tried doing research on Osmosians." She explained. "But all I could find was your arrest and service record, and Aggregor's arrest record. There was no listing of a planet called Osmos V in any system in any database. There wasn't even a record of any Plumber named Devin Levin. I didn't say anything at the time because things were crazy enough as it was." A pause. "But what do you mean it was all a cover for a mission? What mission?"

Here Kevin hesitated. Like really hesitated. He didn't want to tell Gwen any more than he wanted to tell Ben, but at the same time, he also knew (from experience) that he just couldn't lie to Gwen. Somewhere along the line, it had become impossible for him to keep things from her. At least, for very long. He might be able to go several days without her finding out, maybe a solid week, or a short month if he was really determined. But eventually, one way or another, Kevin would break and bear his soul to the woman he loved.

"I was supposed to be a sleeper cell." He confessed. "We all were. Me, Helen, Manny, Pierce, and Alan. Living normal lives -or at least as normal as people like us are capable of. Get close to the target. Work our way into his life. Become part of his normal routine. Until it was time to go to work and finish the mission. Kill the Coming Storm."

She raised an eyebrow. Gwen thought she already knew the answer before Kevin said it, but she asked all the same, "And who is this 'Coming Storm'?"

A beat of silence.

"Your doofus cousin."

A second beat of silence.

She wasn't surprised. What crazy, psychotic, megalomaniac plan didn't revolve around Ben Tennyson? Honestly, some times it felt like the whole universe revolved around Ben Tennyson, his watch, and his stupid fat head. It was maddening. Especially when you were one of the people close to Ben. "That's why you want him to stay behind."

"Part to it." Kevin nodded. "Servantis is crossed with a Cerebrocrustacean. He has the ability to control people's minds. Or at least, influence their perceptions or whatever. He could turn the kids against us. I'm not dumb, Gwen, I know Ben helped you raise Devlin. He's more of a father figure to my son than I am. How do you think he would feel when he wakes up from Servantis' control to realize he just killed the man who raised him. Imagine what that would do to him. I need you to keep Ben here. Can you do that for me? For Devlin. Can you do that?"

With a grim nod, Gwen agreed. "I'll keep Ben here as long as I can. But you know him. Sooner or later he's gonna ignore what people tell him and rush off on his own."

"Then run after him." He reopened the door and they walked back into the Null Void chamber. "Okay. We're ready to go."

"Ben, you and I are staying behind." Gwen announced. "They'll need someone to monitor things from this side and work the Null Void controls."

"Kenny and Grandpa can do that."

"They stay too." Gwen growled.

Kenny seemed to take issue with that.

"I'm impressed Agent Levin." Servantis beamed at Devlin and for a moment -jut a moment- he was reminded of a much younger Kevin, energetic, devoted and enthusiastic. "You seem quite committed to our cause."

Devlin stood at parade rest. He wanted to smile at the complement. The Proctor thought he was doing good work. But there was just one small, minute, tiny, insignificant detail that bothered him. "I prefer 'Agent Tennyson'. If its all the same to you, Sir."

The Proctor raised a quizzical eyebrow at that. That was the detail that bothered him? Not the fact that he'd -essentially- kidnapped the daughter of a close family friend. Or that, by doing so, he'd placed himself in almost direct opposition to his uncle, his mother, and almost everyone else he grew up with. Or, perhaps, Devlin was just in denyal about the things he had to do to complete his latest mission. Deflecting his discomfort onto a lesser, mundane and insignificant issue. Either way, the Proctor didn't care. But he did play along.

"Levin is your name, is it not?"

Servantis did his homework prior to recruiting the boy. His privileges as a Proctor ranked operative that answered directly to the Magistrata allowed him access to any database he wanted and Servantis had looked up the boy's records going all the way back to his birth. Devlin Eli Tennyson did not exist prior to enrolling in the Weekend Academy one year ago. Before that he was always Devlin Eli Levin.

"It is…" The boy reluctantly admitted. "But I prefer my mother's maiden name. 'Levin' carries to much negativity. 'Tennyson' is a proper Plumbers name."

Suppressing the urge to smirk with ironic amusement, Servantis reminded him. "We're not proper Plumbers."

"Sir?" Devlin asked.

Clearing his throat, the older man explained. "In our quest to cleanse the universe of the Coming Storm we sometimes have to operate outside the standard operating procedures and normal parameters of the Plumbers purview. We bend the rules without breaking them. -In the interest of safeguarding peace and facilitating free exchange between planets and races, of course." He added quickly. "But because of the things we have to do, we are not 'proper' Plumbers."

That made sense, Devlin had to admit. The Rooters operated in the gray area between right and wrong. It was a region of ethics and morality Devlin had always felt uncomfortable with because it was where his father spent most of his life. The gray area of moral ambiguity. But there were shades of gray and Devlin liked to think that he was closer to the light side than his father was.

He might have just kidnapped Herminie Armstrong, but he planned on returning her home to her parents the moment the Proctor was done with his examinations. He never killed anyone. He never absorbed the life-energy or stole the powers of other living beings. He never terrorized other planets or peoples. He never sold or traded in illegal goods… Overall, Devlin viewed himself to be a far less dark shade of gray than his father was. In cases of gray-on-gray morality, it was always better to be closer to the light. If you couldn't be Good, you could at least be 'not as bad as that other guy'. Not as bad as Kevin. Not as bad as the Coming Storm.

Servantis and his Rooters bent rules, skated on regulations, and operated outside Plumbers purview. But they did it in the interest of safeguarding peace and protecting the universe from a worse threat. The Coming Storm. "Can you tell me now who the Coming Storm is? Or at least what his weapon is? You can't expect me to fight something without knowing what I'm going up against. I'm not my Uncle Ben."

Another ironic smirk. "No. You're not."

If the older man was about to say more, he didn't get the chance to. They were interrupted, Servantis abruptly cut off when Phil poked his head out the door to the medical bay and snarled, "Will you two stop dicking around in the hall and come help Swifty with this brat! I've never seen a kid more against getting blood drawn!"

Suddenly concerned for Minie (whom he was still anticipating on returning to her parents once Servantis got what he needed), Devlin pushed past the two older men and rushed into the room to find the place a mess. Swift was in the air, an empty syringe in one hand, an alcohol swab in the other, her eyes darting around the room trying to keep track of a blue blur that kept flitting from corner to corner trying to escape the mean lady with the needle. Minie hated needles.

"Slow down, Speedy!" Devlin called across the room, not quite sure what direction he should be talking to since she was all over the place.

The little girl paused just long enough to turn to Devlin and shout, "No!" Before she was once again flitting about the room, looking for her exit.

Unfortunately for Devlin, he happened to be standing right in front of the exit and Minie barreled into him with all of her Tetramand bulk propelled by all of her Kineceleran speed. It felt like getting hit in the knees by a cannon and he went down. Minie paused again, just long enough to inform Devlin, "I don't wanna get a shot! You can't make me!"

Then she was gone. Lost in the base.

Servantis pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off a stress headache. "I'd forgotten how difficult children really are…"

Kevin had never been nearly such a handful. But then again, Servantis reflected, his Kevin was perfect.

"Ally and I can get her." Devlin promised, pushing himself back up on sore legs.

The Null Void projector teleported them onto an asteroid just outside of the Rooters base. Kevin looked up at the blood red sky, undulating with shades of crimson, firetruck, brick, and cherry. It felt like it was just yesterday he was in the Null Void -probably because it wasn't yet even a month since he'd been let out. He glanced behind him to make sure just his team made it through and they didn't have any unwanted heroic tag-alongs.

Helen, Pierce, Manny, Alan. Check. No Tennyson, Gwen, Kenny, or Max. Check, check. Good.

Kevin turned his attention back to the Rooters base in front of them. Hovering in empty space, just a bit to far from the asteroid to jump to. There was a thin winding path leading up to the main entrance, but then, they didn't really wanna use the main entrance. That was the best way to get caught and getting caught wouldn't help them get their kids back. So that was out.

"Shame our group hasn't got a flyer." The Osmosian commented out loud.

"T'ch. Speak for yourself." Alan scoffed. He transformed into his Pyronite form, shot fire from his feet and propelled himself like a rocket across the expanse that separated their asteroid from the base. He landed on the lower portion of the station, gripping one of the pylons jutting out from the tail-shaft for balance, and waved to them. Alan, at least, got across safely.

"I wonder what his plan was if he over shot the base and fell in the void…" Pierce wondered aloud.

Had he been in a better mood, Kevin might have laughed at the mental image of his comrade flailing madly while he struggled to fly back up to the target he missed. But with Devlin still inside said base with Servantis, the Osmosian found that humor had left him completely. "That's all well and good for Albright, but how are the rest of us gonna get across?"

As if in answer to this question, Helen began running laps around the perimeter of the asteroid. Building up speed and momentum. On her last pass, she scooped up her brother (Pierce being the lightest of the three men left) and shot off, jumping towards the Rooters base. Using the momentum she built up to just barely make it across. Alan caught her by the hand to help steady her and Pierce so that neither would fall into the void. The three of them waved back at Kevin and Manny, the only two left back on the asteroid.

"You ever feel inadequate sometimes being nothing more than the 'Strong Man' of the group?" Manny asked idly, at a loss for ideas on how to get the two of them across.

"My inadequacy issues have nothing to do with being the muscle of the group." Kevin shook his head. He knelt down, placing his palm flat to the ground, he absorbed a bit of the asteroid, just enough to gauge the type of rock it was made of. Nodded, as if with confirmation or satisfaction, then released the matter. She stood and walked to a different part of the asteroid and repeated the same action, where the ground was a slightly different color. Slightly reddish brown from a random iron deposit. When Kevin absorbed this patch of matter, his body turned to metal.

"Hey, so, you've got the powers of eleven thousand aliens, right? Can't you, like, fly or something?"

Shaking his head with annoyance, Kevin stabbed his metal hand into the center of the asteroid, creating a long fissure in the surface. "You are the second person to ask that. No! I don't have those powers anymore. I lost them when Tennyson beat me and threw me back in here." He stabbed his hand in the ground again, lengthening the fissure, adding stress to the crack until the asteroid they were on broke in two, with them on the smaller piece. "Now come here and help me push."

"Huh? Oh!"

It was then that Manny noticed that by breaking the asteroid in two, they could push the smaller piece off the larger half and propel themselves towards the Rooters base. There was nothing about being the 'Strong Man' that made a person inadequate. It was how they chose to use or not use their strength that made a 'Strong Man' inadequate. Manny sat next to Kevin on the edge of their fragment of the asteroid. Both men propped their feet up on the opposite half and pushed as had as they could. Their fragment went drifting at a lea surly pace towards the Rooters base…

…And almost passed by it completely. Kevin and Manny had to jump quickly to void floating off into the Void.

Helen grabbed her husband by his belt buckle to steady him and keep him from falling. Kevin, on the other hand, slipped on the smooth paneling and had to drop his iron armor fast and absorb the stronger metal of the station, morph his hand into a climbing axe, and stop his fall before he slid completely down and was (for the fourth time in his life) lost in the Null Void. He climbed back up to join the rest of the Amalgams.

"Great job, Fearless Leader." Alan shook his head. "Lets hope none of your climbing and banging holes in the armor tripped any alarms."

"I'm curious." Helen began. "What would your plan have been if the asteroid hit the base?"

"It didn't. Lets just focus on getting in and getting our kids out." He growled. Kevin knelt down, morphing his climbing axe hands into pry bars which he then used to loosen the armor panel at their feet enough for Manny to lift it out of the way. Pierce bent down to examine the exposed cables and wiring, looking for the alarm system.

"Its actually not all that different from the security we have at the Weekend Academy." He withdrew one of his quills and poked at three different wires. Each one gave a small spark and a sizzle. "All done."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Its that easy to disable the security of the place my son goes every week?"

"Well, if you know what you're doing." Piece shrugged.

"Can we move on with this?" Helen tapped her foot in impatience. "Your baby can take care of himself. My baby is not even ten yet! She only has about half the ability she should have from Manny and me, she's in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by dangerous strangers, and the two people in there with that she should be ablest depend on aren't in their right minds. So, if you don't mind!"

"She has a point." Alan stepped up, balls of flame forming in his hands. The Pyronite blasted the open panel, melting a hole through the wires, cables, and piping that ran between the outer shielding and the inner paneling. He jumped down into the base. "All clear!"

Helen was down the hole even before the words were out of his mouth, her husband not far behind her. Then Pierce jumped down. Kevin went last.

The room they found themselves in appeared to be a storage closet of some kind. There were boxes marked 'Spare Uniforms'. "Ooh! Proto-tech armor!"

Kevin pulled a sleek black suit out of one of the boxes. He held it against himself. It was around his relative size. It was nice of Tennyson to lend him pants and a couple of shirts, but it would be even nicer to wear something that hadn't touched another man's junk before. And the fact that it would offer some protection in the inevitable fight was a plus. Without even a bashful pause, the Osmosian began stripping out of his borrowed clothes.

"Oy! Dude!" Alan, Manny, and Pierce all averted their eyes. Helen seemed unbothered by his stripping.

"What?" Kevin shrugged the shirt over his head and adjusted the armor's shoulder plates. "You guys got a problem with me jacking crap from the jerks that took our kids?"

"No, I think they take issue with you getting naked right in front of them." Helen explained.

"Alan incinerates all his clothes every time he goes alien. How come none of you complain about that?" Asked the Osmosian as he clipped the belt around his waist and selected a pair of gauntlets to slip around his wrists. "Oh! By the way, these are supposed to be virtually indestructible, so they won't incinerate when you go alien."

"I'll take two." Alan changed back into human form and selected a suit in his own size to cover his nakedness.

Shrugging to each other, Helen, Pierce, and Manny gave up and picked out suits of their own. Soon they were all wearing proto-tech armor.

Now better equipped to take on their enemy, they ducked out of the store room. Helen vanished with nothing but a gust of air to announce her leaving. But she wasn't gone long. A second gust and a blur of blue and black and she was back with the group.

"I did a quick check of the station. Servantis and the old Rooters are mostly in the main control room. Devlin and Ally are on opposite ends of the station. They and some other kid I don't know are looking for someone. I haven't found Herminie yet." That last part was said in a voice strained with concern.

"Don't worry, Sweetheart, we'll find her." Manny assured his wife.

"Okay." Kevin nodded. "I'll go for Devlin. Alan, you get your daughter. The rest of you, try and find Helen and Manny's kid without the Rooters discovering we're here."

They split up. Alan went up, Kevin went down, the others took separate directions.

Back on Earth, Kenny paced the room with impatience laced by frustration. What the heck was going on with Devlin? Kenny was under the impression that Devlin was going to reject the Proctor's offer. But then Kevin had to show up at their school and mess everything up. If Kevin hadn't attacked Servantis, Kenny was sure Devlin wouldn't have stepped in to defend the old Plumber. He wouldn't have driven off with him and he wouldn't be acting crazy now. Any way that Kenny looked at it, this was all Kevin's fault!

Sure, Devlin wasn't the perfect pillar of perfection he liked to pretend to be. Kenny knew -probably better than even Aunt Gwendolyn did- just how insecure being the son of one of the most terrifying terrorists in the universe made him. How he devoted far to much of his free time to trying to distance himself from Kevin in the eyes of others. How that gave him almost a sort of 'tunnel-vision' at times so that Devlin had trouble focusing on or even noticing other things. Sometimes, Devlin could be just as oblivious and absent minded as Kenny himself was. Not because he wasn't smart, but because he was to smart. That made him arrogant and he would disregard or ignore details or factors that might seem obvious to someone else.

Like taking Speedy for example. In Devlin's mind, he'd probably rationalized it into something innocent and painted himself as anything but the bad guy. He wasn't 'kidnapping' her, he was just 'picking her up from school and taking her to meet his new boss'. Or whatever seemingly innocent angle Devlin might choose to look at it from in that big, broody head of his. He worked up a story to justify his actions to himself and completely forgot, or completely ignored the fact that he was taking a kid without said kid's parents' or guardian's permission. That was kidnapping, plain and simple.

But still Kenny didn't blame Devlin. At least not entirely. Because as terrible as he was acting out -and Kenny had never seen him act out like this before- this was all a result of his weakness and insecurity. Servantis was probably playing off Devlin's fear of being compared to his father and using it to manipulate him. It wasn't Devlin's fault! It was Kevin's! It was all Kevin! Kevin was the problem, not Devlin!

Ben leaned against the wall, tapping his fingers impatiently. He followed Kenny with his eyes as the boy paced the room, possibly with even more impatience than his father felt.

"Gah! I can't stand this!" The younger man wailed, throwing his arms up in frustration. "I should've been the one to go after Dev! I'm the one who's always got his back! Devlin doesn't even like Kevin!"

Gwen exchanged a look with her Grandfather. Kenny did have a strange fixation on protecting his older cousin. It was something that went back all the way back to when they were children and Devlin had just gained a human form for the first time. That was years ago by now, and Devlin was more than capable of dealing with his own bullies and taking care of himself. But Kenny still saw himself as Devlin's personal hero. Max and Gwen began to wonder if it wasn't Ben they should be worrying about as a flight risk, but rather Kenny that would be the one to throw caution to the wind and rush into the Null Void to reclaim his older cousin.

Kenny's eyes flicked to the Null Void controls. He really should have been the one to go after Devlin. Not just because everything was Kevin's fault in the first place and Devlin didn't even like Kevin. But also because protecting Devlin was Kenny's job! Ever since they were kids.

When Devlin finally got a human form and Aunt Gwendolyn allowed him to attend school, Devlin was picked on and bullied. A gawky and uncoordinated kid, still getting used to his own new and unfamiliar body. Wobbly on his feet and shy to talk to people. On top of all that he had the same name as one of the bad guys their parents still had nightmares about… it was actually a wonder the bullying wasn't worse than it was. Kids can be just as merciless and cruel as adults.

But Devlin didn't tell. He was no snitch. He didn't cry to the teachers, Aunt Gwendolyn, or Dad. He was afraid that any grown-up he told would assume it was his fault. Because he was the son of that evil 11,000 guy.

So Kenny took it upon himself to protect his older cousin. He had power. For his tenth birthday, Dad gave him his own version of the Omnitrix. It wasn't as powerful as the original and it didn't have as many aliens. It timed out quicker and almost never gave him the alien he wanted. But that was okay. Because it was enough. It got the job done. Most of the kids who went to Bellwood Elementary and Bellwood Public were human and so didn't stand a chance against any of the aliens Kenny was packing. He beat up the bullies that tormented Devlin the worst and made it clear that to mess with Devlin E. Levin was to mess with him!

Since then, Kenny thought of himself as Devlin's personal and private protector. Taking care of Devlin was his job. No one took care of Devlin as well as Kenny did and no one was going to take that job away from him!

"Gah! Forget this!" Kenny launched himself at the Null Void controls.

All three adults jumped after him, but they were just a half second to late. Kenny vanished in a wash of golden light, teleported instantly into the Null Void, to the same coordinates Kevin had programmed in.

"Crap!" Ben slammed his hand down on the same button to follow his son into to Void.

Gwendolyn sighed in exasperation. She knew something like this was going to happen. It was just an inevitability in their family. Still, she was impressed that they almost made it to a full hour before charging in half-cocked without the slightest idea what they were rushing into or even the shadow of a plan.

"Go after them." Max nodded to her. He knew she wanted to. "I'll hold down the fort on this end."

Gwen nodded. She put her hand on the button but didn't press it yet. "The Magistrata couldn't possibly know what Servantis is actually doing. I can't imagine she'd still let him enjoy all his privileges if she did. If you can get in contact with her…"

"I will, Pumpkin." Max nodded.

That was when Gwen pressed the button and teleported herself into the Null Void. To the same coordinates Kevin had programmed in and Ben and Kenny had just teleported themselves to.

She found herself just barely missing the edge of an asteroid that floated not far from the Rooters base and suddenly realized that she was plummeting in a free-fall through the void. Gwen reacted quickly, forming a panel of mana beneath her to stop her fall. She looked down and saw two figures below her. An Aerophibian carrying a Tetramand. They landed on the edge of Gwen's mana platform and Jetrayn turned back into Ben, whom glared at the Tetramand.

"I'm curious, what was your plan if your aunt or I didn't show up to save you?"

"I would have been fine if the stupid fake-Omnitrix gave me Stinkfly like I asked." Kenny grumbled indignantly.

Gwen was the one to spot the opening in the armor of the Rooter's base. In the lower segment of the station just before the anterior segment curved into a sheer drop into the void. She maneuvered her platform of mana to the opening and let Ben and Kenny off. Kenny was about to charge right in, but Ben held him back while Gwen checked to make sure the coast was clear. Extending her senses to detect any near-by mana signatures. There was no one immediately near their entrance. She nodded her head and Ben jumped down first.

"All clear!" The Hero of the Universe conformed once inside.

Kenny was down the hatch after his father in seconds.

"The place looks like your room." Ben joked at his son, noting all the open boxes and scattered clothing littering the floor.

"Yeah, whatever. Lets just find Devlin." The boy was preoccupied.

Gwen joined them in the store room. "Devlin isn't acting like himself." She reminded the boy. "Be carful when we do find him. If he's still under Servantis' control he might attack you."

Kenny looked like he didn't believe her, but he said nothing. Instead he turned from both of them and ran from the store room, sprinting through the halls and corridors of the Rooters base even though he had no idea where he was going. Since he didn't know where he was it didn't matter if he got himself lost. Just so long as he found Devlin. That was all Kenny cared about.

He heard his father running after him, shouting for him to stop and wait. Kenny toggled through his faux-Omnitrix hoping it would actually give him something useful. XLR8, or Ghostfreak, maybe. Someone fast enough to outrun the Hero of the Universe of able to phase-shift through walls. Instead what it gave him was Graymater.

Fine. That was just fine. Since Kenny couldn't outrun his father or ghost through the walls, he did the next best thing. He found an access grill at floor level and pulled a Star Wars. He opened the grill. Unlike in Star Wars it did not lead into a garbage shoot -thank goodness. Instead it provided ventilation for a series of wires, cable and pipes. The hardware that allowed the electronics and software of the station to function. Here Graymater could be useful.

Kenny exited out the next grill vent he saw on the opposite side and came out in a completely different corridor. It would take Dad and Aunt Gwendolyn some time to catch up to him now. Not sure how much time was left before the faux-Omnitrix timed out and returned him to human form, Kenny set to work rigging an interface that would allow him to hack into the base's security feeds.

He was going to find Devlin and he was going to be the one to sort this all out. Devlin was his to protect. His! No one else's.

"Darn it, Speedy! Its just a blood test!" Devlin snarled to the empty corridor.

He decided to search the aft, anterior section of the station while Ally looked up and Billings took the middle. But the little Kineceleran-Tetramand girl continued to evade him. Kenny was really better at finding her whenever they played Hide-n-Seek than Devlin ever was. Mostly because Devlin thought like a grown-up. Minie was just as fast as her mother, but she still left tracks. She couldn't maintain her speed for nearly as long as Helen Armstrong could, but she could still cover far more distance than Devlin could in his human form. And she was clever, criss-crossing her own trail to leave false tracks. And she was so fast that there was no way to tell which were new and which were old. It was impossible for Devlin to track. Kenny, on the other hand, still thought like a child and so sometimes knew where Minie would be even before she did.

Devlin wished Kenny were with him. He'd never really done anything without his cousin before. At last, not anything that required him to leave the house. He did plenty at home without Kenny. But whenever they went out, to hang out with their (uncommonly small) group of friends, or even just school, or the Weekend Academy they were always together. This was the first time Devlin was actually doing something on his own. Without his cousin. Devlin was hesitant to admit it -even just to himself- but he was not liking the experience. As much as he wanted to be a Plumber, he was slowly deciding that he didn't want it if Kenny wasn't also a Plumber beside him.

Why hadn't Servantis offered Kenny a job anyway?

While still immature, a little naive, and lazy, Kenny was still much more deserving of being offered a chance to become a Plumber early. Being the son of the great hero Ben Tennyson and all. He came from hero stock and was destined to become just as great a hero and savior. Devlin came from villain stock and wasn't fit to share the same air his uncle (technically second-cousin) breathed. Why hadn't Servantis made his offer to Kenny?

Come to think of it, the Proctor had called his father 'Agent Levin' at his school. Kevin used to be a Rooter before Devlin was. But when would he have been? His father was deputized as a Plumber at the age of sixteen when Mom and Uncle Ben uncovered the Highbreed invasion and Mom had been with him ever since. She would have known if he had joined a covert Plumbers team. Even if he didn't actually tell her, she would have noticed. But Mom didn't know anything about the Rooters or Servantis at the Pardon Ceremony. So, when was Kevin a Rooter? Something wasn't adding up here.

And Devlin still didn't know the identity of this Coming Storm he was supposed to help save the universe from.

How could they expect him to fight an enemy if he didn't even know what or who said enemy was?

An idea was forming in Devlin's mind. Still a little indistinct and ephemeral on the edges of his mind, but it made him uneasy and suspicious.

There was something going on with the Rooters that Devlin couldn't quite put his finger. It wasn't any one thing. It was just lots of little things that -by themselves- were mundane and not worth thinking on. Like how Servantis wouldn't just come out and say who the Coming Storm really was. Or how Billings -who hated Devlin-, and Ally -who was just as stubborn and independent as Devlin himself was- were suddenly taking commands from him readily and without question as if he were a seasoned leader and not one of their peers. The Proctor called it a 'psychic link' between them and their team leader. When Servantis hit him and Billings with his power, and when Devlin touched Ally's hand and that same red lightning crackled between them, that was when the 'link' was formed. But Devlin had a sinking suspicion that he was not actually the 'team leader'.

He had no actual evidence of any of this, of course. Just a 'gut feeling', and Devlin knew from experience that his 'gut instincts' weren't all that great. He was rather like his mother that way. Relying on rational thought and evidence rather than his lower digestive track. There was just no rational explanation for why Proctor Servantis would want a bunch of inexperienced teenagers underfoot if he wasn't training them to take over his already existing team's post. There was no evidence to support that something strange was going on, just Devlin's own unease -which could just as easily be explained by doing something without his cousin for the first time in his life.

Reminding himself of those facts, Devlin forced himself to feel better. There was noting suspicious going on with the Rooters. He was just being skeptical and paranoid.

Then he rounded a corner and came face to face with an impatient and annoyed looking Kenny.

The Osmosian froze for a moment, for a second questioning his own eyes. After all, Kenny couldn't possibly be here in the Rooters base. He was back on Earth, at home, in the Plumber's Heaquarters or perhaps at soccer practice. How would Kenny even get into the base? To get him to the Null Void was easy. They both knew how to work the NV Chamber controls. All he would have to do to get into the Void would be to sneak into the Chamber without being noticed and zap himself in. But sneaking into the Rooter's base, that was a feat -and a bit beyond Kenny's skill.

Then his younger cousin punched him in the face and Devlin knew he had to be real because hallucinations didn't have that good of a right hook.

Devlin put a hand to his injured cheek and gaped at the younger boy.

Kenny still looked pissed, and Devlin wondered if he was going to hit him a second time. But Kenny didn't follow up his punch with a second blow. Instead, he pulled his older cousin into a tight hug. As if equal parts relieved and pissed off. The punch was because he was pissed. The hug was because he was relieved to find Devlin so easily.

"What the kriff is wrong with you!?" He snarled into Devlin's ear.

"Nothing's wrong with me." The Osmosian whispered back. He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt so much more relaxed than he had in the past two days. Just having Kenny near him, even if the younger boy was mad at him, made Devlin feel so much better. More calm and at ease.

But Kenny pulled away at Devlin's assurance that there was nothing wrong with him. "Bantha fodder!"

"What?" Devlin blinked.

"There is something going on with you." Kenny insisted. "I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna figure it out and I'm gonna stop it. You ran off with some shady Proctor guy, you took Ally, you kidnapped Speedy! What the kriff!? You're acting like… well, you're acting like a bad guy! Like Kevin! The the bad Kevin. The one we haven't actually met. We've only just heard stories about. Kevin 11,000."

"I'm nothing like him!" Devlin snarled. Now it was his turn to back up from his cousin. If there was one thing that got under Devlin's skin it was comparing him to his father.

Kenny threw his arms up in exasperation. "You're right. Kevin 11,000 never targeted or kidnapped children!"

"I haven't kidnapped anyone!" Devlin shouted back.

"You kidnapped Speedy!" Kenny snarled.

"I'm gonna take her back!" The Osmosian insisted. "Once Servantis gets his DNA panel from her I'm gonna take her home to Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong. She'll be back safe at home before the morning. -If I ever find her. Speedy ran off on us and is hiding somewhere on the base."

Kenny looked relieved at hearing that. Not the first part. Kenny continued to look concerned while Devlin was proclaiming that he did nothing wrong and that it wasn't kidnapping if he returned her to her parents. But the moment Devlin mentioned that Minie ran off and was hiding from the Rooters and that Devlin couldn't find her… that was a relief for Kenny to hear. "Good. I'll find her and take her home." He nodded. "And you'll come with me and apologize to Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong. We'll explain that you can't be held responsible, that Servantis has you under his control or something, so that you don't get in trouble. I'll protect you Dev. But you gotta come back with me now."

Devlin shook his head. "Not until Servantis gets his blood tests."

"To hell with Servantis!" Kenny snarled. "I'm more worried about you! You kidnapped a Plumber's kid!"

"I'm just following orders!"

There was a beat of silence.

"I cannot believe those words just came out of your mouth." Kenny began toggling through his faux-Omnitrix. "You're coming home with me, Dev. Even if I have to beat you unconscious to do it!"

As Kenny toggled through the aliens in his watch, Devlin assumed a fighting stance. "I'd like to see you try."