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.
Occupation Earth
Episode VII:
"I can't believe you'd build a thing and not know how to take it off!" Since no one would let Kevin help with the boys' little Omnitrix debacle, all the Osmosian could do was hover about the room, make snarky comments, and just generally be a nuisance. "C'mon, Cooper, I thought you were smart."
The technopath shot the older man a dirty look but said nothing. He was busy trying to figure out how to get the watch off Kenny's arm and didn't have the attention to divide between the obnoxious sometimes-friend and his actual task.
"I'm more interested in why the Omnitirx malfunctioned." Kai informed them. She hovered over them, arms crossed, glaring reproachfully at her son while Cooper worked and Kevin circled. "It was supposed to turn him into one alien. One. Not an amalgamation of several. Its a metamorphic watch not… you!" She jabbed an accusatory finger at Kevin.
To that the Osmosian just scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"T'ch. That's an easy one. I can answer that without even looking at the thing. Just look at where you got your samples from! Helen, Manny, and Alan aren't full alien. They're humans that have had alien DNA grafted onto their genes." He knew that because he was the one to do it. When they were all still children working for the Rooters. "The rest of your samples are diluted even further because you got them from Devlin. Instead of cut in half, they're cut into elevenths. Your DNA sequences are all full of holes that have to be filled before the Omnitrix can actually transform the user."
Crossing the space between them -and ignoring Cooper's protest- Kevin flicked open the watch face to expose the ten DNA sample nodes.
"So, its gonna fill in the holes with whatever it has access to."
"So, what'd the Omnitrix mix him with?" Devlin asked. Of all the people in the room, he was the only one not upset with the younger boy. He sat at Kenny's side, holding his free hand for support. He knew what it was like to transform into a monster. "I didn't recognize the ears or tail."
"Looked kinda like a Loboan to me." Kevin suggested, a strange smirk on his face. Like he was trying to hold in a laugh but doing a piss-poor job of it.
"What's that meant to imply?" Kai growled at him, strangely defensive.
"Nothing." Kevin assured her quickly. "Nothing at all. Obviously, the Omnitrix just mixed the Vulpimancer sample with the next DNA sample it had access to that was most similar. Vulpimancers are canid, Loboan are canid -ergo Vulpoan. Or Lobomancer, if you prefer."
"We don't have a Loboan sample in the Omnitrix." Cooper informed him. "There wasn't one available."
"Oh." He did not seem the least bit surprised or confused by this news. But that amused smirk was back on his face. He cast a quick knowing glance at Kai, before scrutinizing Kenny more closely. "The DNA sample must have come from somewhere else then."
The brat certainly looked human. But Kevin knew Kai's particular fetishes. Tennyson had confided as much in him in what was supposed to be the Best Man's obligatory 'everybody gets cold feet' speech. But somehow in between 'you and Gwen have seen and done a lot of weird shit together' and 'you'll be together forever anyway', Tennyson sort of just degraded into a long complaining rant about his own fiancee. It was more about Kai than Kevin ever wanted to know. But it did explain a few things about the woman. Like why she put up with Tennyson's chronic stupidity. Or why she would sometimes spray him with a water bottle when he annoyed her. And most recent and most noticeable of all, her son had Loboan DNA hidden in his genes.
Something from the Omnitrix that had snuck in through Tennyson.
If anyone was gonna say anything else in response to Kevin's veiled implication, they didn't get the chance to. Rook walked in at that exact moment carrying Kevin's proto-tech armor -freshly washed and dried. "Am I interrupting something."
"No." Kai was quick to assure him. "Kevin was just making an ass of himself -as per usual."
Devlin made a face at that statement. Prior to last night, everyone had always had good things to say about him father. He was clever and strong, a genius mechanic and competent fighter, a fierce ally and a good friend. Now that he was alive again, suddenly he was an ass? Aside from the fact that he had disagreed with almost everything Kai and the others told him since he arrived, Devlin didn't think his father was being much of an ass. He was just uninformed and trying to make sense of the world.
"Oh, then my timing's perfect." Rook smiled and held the black proto-tech suit out for the Osmosian. "Its time for you to go."
"Go?" He asked. "Go where?"
"Anywhere that's not here." Was Rook's shrugged response. "I let you leave your mana behind because I think that's what you need to finally realize that the Witch is not our friend anymore. But its your mana, and you're mana only, so she'll be following you. Not us. We can't have you putting this group in danger just because you don't believe a simple fact. So before the Witch catches up to you, you have to leave."
Almost mechanically, Kevin took the folded up proto-tech armor, but hesitated to accept the survival kit. "You're kicking me out?"
"Its for the best." Kai agreed. She moved to stand next to Rook, to show a unified front.
"What about Devlin?" Kevin demanded.
"Devlin stays with us." Kai asserted. "He'll be safer with us. You're to unpredictable, Kevin. You've always been-" she did not say 'crazy' "-unpredictable."
For half a second Kevin looked like he was about to have one of his trademark Moments and 'Pull a Kevin'. There was an asymmetrical twitch to one eye, his lips set in a grim line that threatened violence, hands balled into fists. First they say he has to go, effectively kicking him out of the only familiar thing in this whole crazy world he suddenly found himself in, but now they were denying him his son, taking his child away from him. That was enough to have any normal parent threatening violence, never mind Kevin E. Levin.
Rook casually let his hand drift up to his shoulder where he holstered his proto-tool. But then, true to Kai's statement, Kevin proved they couldn't predict him.
The Osmosian took a breath, forcing himself to calm down and instead asked, "Why don't you let Devlin decide."
All three adults turned to look at the children.
The boys still sat together. Devlin still holding his cousin's hand. The young Osmosian hesitated a moment before looking down at his feet. "I, uh… I wanna get to know my dad." He admitted softly. Kai looked disappointed. Kevin smirked as if in triumph. Then the boy continued. "But… But I wanna stay with Kenny more. I'm sorry, Dad, but Kenny and I have always been together. I can't leave him."
Especially not now that the other boy was just beginning to transform into different aliens. Mutated aliens from the sound of it -if what Dad was saying was true- and Devlin had plenty of experience transforming into mutated aliens that were mixed with other aliens. Kenny would need him.
"So that's it then." Kevin growled, not at all pleased with his son choosing tiny-Tennyson over him. He pulled off the shift he borrowed from Cooper and stripped off the pants as well without so much as a bashful pause. Kai averted her eyes out of respect -and a decisive lack of desire to see Kevin Levin in the buff- while Rook just sighed with exasperation. Kevin never did care much for social taboos. He pulled the proto-tech armor on instead. Then grabbed the survival kit out of Rook's hand. "Fine. That's just fine. My wife's evil -according to all of you- and now my son would rather stay with the people who let him think his mother hates him instead of me. Fine."
He held his hand out as if expecting something else.
"What?" Rook asked.
"Keys!" Kevin snarled. "You can't expect me to get very far before Gwen catches up to me without a ride. Gimme my car back."
With a tad more reluctance than was actually necessary, Rook withdrew a keychain from a pocket in his proto-tech armor. "I did assist in making her everything proof. She is my car as well."
The Osmosian let out a soulless snarl and snatched the keys from the other man's hand. He had long since lost his patience with these people. They made grossly harsh judgments about his wife without giving adequate justification, allowed his son to grow up thinking his mother hated him, turned Devlin against him, refused to even humor him when he insisted there could be other explanations for Gwen's behavior, and just generally all around distrusted him still. Now they were kicking him out just because he wanted to talk to his wife instead of instantly writing her off as an enemy. Well, there was no way in hell they were gonna take his car from him too!
Not on top of everything else. Kevin needed something.
Some small piece of his life from back when the world wasn't so crazy. Something to keep him sane. (Because sanity always had been an uphill battle for him.)
The Osmosian was about to storm out of the room. But he paused, turning one last time. He locked eyes with his son. "Last chance, Devlin. Are you sure you wanna stay here, or are you coming with me?"
For half a moment it looked like the boy was about to change his mind. He stood from his seat, but was still holding Kenny's hand. His other hand fished in his pocket for the gold locket. He hadn't had time to replace the strap yet, but the locket was still in perfect condition, the picture inside the same as it had always been. The Osmosian looked at the old photo, of what his parents used to look like, he glanced up at Kevin, the old man he had become, the looked to Kenny at his side, his best friend, cousin, and companion that he'd known all his life. In all their life they'd never been apart from one another.
"I'm staying." Devlin told the older man. "I can't leave Kenny."
With a final snarl of frustration, Kevin stormed out of the room and was gone.
…
When Len arrived back home, she was greeted by her daddy, who almost immediately took her to her mother's dojo. She didn't know what the room used to be before it was renovated for her mother's use shortly after Len was born. It was a wide room with hardwood floors, tall windows, and mirrors lining one wall. The opposite wall sported a rack filled with wooden practice versions of all sorts of weapons. From a simple staff, all the way up to the extremely versatile but complicated energysword-blaster pioneered by Ezra Bridger.
Her daddy ignored all these weapons, however. He lead her to the center of the room and then knelt down. Right there on the floor. Sitting on his knees to be on eye-level with her. Len had never seen her daddy do something so undignified. He grabbed her shoulders and looked her right in the eyes, sapphire blue to emerald green.
"Lenette, do you know why your mother hunts the rebels?" He asked, very seriously.
The little girl's heart skipped a beat. Igurax said that her mother was fine when he pulled her from piano practice. But was that really true, or was that just something adults said to make sure kids didn't worry. Len might be a kid, but she wasn't dumb, and she wasn't naive. But then, if something had happened to her mother, then Daddy wouldn't be here with her in the dojo. He would be with Mom, wherever she was. So with a conscious effort, Len pushed her apprehension aside and answered her daddy's question.
"Its her service to our great leader, Vilgax-thulu." She said as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.
He gave a short laugh that might actually have been a cough at her answer. "Well, Princess, you're not wrong. But you're not quite right either. Your mother hunts the rebels because she's the only one who can." When Len looked confused he elaborated. "With her ability to track mana, she can find the rebels much more quickly and more efficiently than any other Enforcer working under the Rall'ya."
"That's why you won't let me help." Len looked downcast. "Because my powers are useless for tracking or hunting."
Was that what this was? Did he call her home early and bring her to the dojo to deliver a strongly worded lecture on knowing her place and her limitations. On knowing what she could and couldn't do with her life and her abilities, regardless of what she wanted to do with her life or her abilities. Len looked down at the highly polished dojo floor. The household staff always made sure the room stayed immaculately clean for her mother's use.
"For tracking, yes. Your powers are useless." He nodded. "But there is something you can do. The rebels have someone new working with them. A mercenary. Your mother can't beat him. In fact, he could take her away from us."
Len's emerald eyes widened in disbelief. "Can't you stop him!?"
"Actually, my Lovely Lenette, you can stop him." Her daddy informed her, very soberly. "You're the only one who can."
Igurax entered the dojo then, carrying what looked like her school gym uniform freshly cleaned and folded. These he passed to Len as she looked between the two of them not quite understanding what was going on.
"Training cloths." Igurax explained. She couldn't very well learn to fight in her normal school uniform. While the pleated black skirt and plain white polo shirt did provide plenty or mobility, the majority of Earthling societies did not deep skirts 'appropriate' combat attire. Darkstar would not approve of his concubine's daughter fighting in something that risked exposing her undergarments.
Len took the gym cloths mechanically. She looked up at Igurax, suddenly not understanding his role in her life. The Chimera Sui Generis soldier had always been her bodyguard and protector. But, if Daddy was finally going to let her be trained in how to use her powers beyond just maintaining a human form, what purpose would there be for him? A question was on the edge of her lips, but she didn't get the chance to ask it.
Her daddy stood, as if to leave. "Igurax will begin your new training in combat and investigative hunting. When your mother gets over her own personal reservations, she will being training you in how to use your powers."
He turned to leave.
"You won't train me, Daddy?" After all, didn't she get her powers of absorption from him?
Darkstar paused in the doorway. He looked back at Gwen's daughter. The girl that should have been his daughter if Kevin hadn't gotten to Gwen first. He resented that. He resented the fact that she wasn't his. She should have been his. Kevin already got his kid out of Gwen. The boy, Damien, or Devin, whatever. The universe should have let Darkstar have Lenette. Lenette should have been his. It just wasn't fair!
But she wasn't his. And almost everything about her had to remind him of that fact. From her thick black hair to her hideously ugly mutated form. An amalgamation of stone, wood, and Taydenite. Darkstar hated it and he hated having to look at it. So, no. He would not be teaching Len how to use her powers. It was bad enough that she had her real father's powers at all.
"Your mother will handle it." He repeated and left.
The one comfort was that, Kevin's powers of absorption were similar enough to his own that Len easily and readily believed that she inherited them from him. She, at least, believed Darkstar was her real father and that was the best that he could ask for. It meant that when the inevitable confrontation happened, Lenette would remain loyal to him. She would fight for Darkstar and kill her real father.
There was a strange kind of poetry to that and Darkstar couldn't help but smile at it.
Kevin would be killed and put out of Darkstar's misery, and the one to do it would be Kevin's own daughter that he probably doesn't even know he has.
…
It was getting dark, but not quite night fall. It was that ambiguous time of day where a person had to drive with both their headlights and their sunglasses on. Where the sun was dipping low on the horizon, casting the roan into shadows, but also glaring light directly into the driver's eyes. Because of that, it took Kevin a moment to register the flashing red and blue lights in his rearview mirror.
A cop.
A normal, terrestrial, highway patrol car.
Well, Manny did tell him his ride was a marked car. Belonging to marked fugitives.
The Osmosian contemplated whether or not he wanted to pull over. He wasn't quite to Bellwood yet, still out on the open highway between Los Solidad and the city limits, and he didn't want to have to put up with the delay that dispatching an unfortunate LEO would make. On the other hand, making a stir with the cops would certainly make it easier for Gwen to find him. Not just follow his mana but also the trail of chaos he left in his wake. The deciding factor, Kevin decided, was that he really didn't have anywhere else he really needed to be in a hurry and had nothing better to do with his time while he waited for Gwen to catch up to him.
With a sigh of resignation Kevin pulled over to the side of the road and cut the engine.
He adjusted the rearview mirror to watch the cop swagger over to him. But it wasn't a normal Earthling highway patrolman that got out of the car. It was a Chimera Sui Generis, wearing an altered version of a terran HPD uniform, that climbed out of the patrol car. Kevin stared at him in the mirror, mentally kicking himself. Of course, if the planet was occupied by Vilgax's forces, there was no reason to assume they'd keep the same law enforcement in place. Why would they? Earthlings would have no motivation to support the regime.
Keeping his hands at ten and two on the steering wheel, the Osmosian smiled up at the alien officer. "Is there a problem?"
The car being marked as being one used by a known terrorist cell, the Chimera Sui Generis officer wasn't playing any games or wasting his time. He had no patience for dancing around with a possible enemy of the state. "Sir, step out of the car."
"Was I speeding?" Kevin asked innocently. He knew very well he wasn't going over seventy, which was perfectly legal on an interstate. (At least, it was ten years ago.)
"Step out of the car and put your hands on the hood." The Chimera Sui Generis patrolman said again.
Oh. Well, if Kevin could put his hands on the hood, everything was fine then. Suppressing the urge to smile, the Osmosian opened the door and climbed out of the car. He turned around and placed both hands on the invulnerable hood of his car while the Chimera Sui Generis gave him a pat down.
"Where are you headed?" The officer asked.
"Home." Kevin replied, and the only reason the Chimera Sui Generis missed the smirk on his face was because the Osmosian's back was to him. The answer was true enough, it just wasn't the one the officer wanted.
"Don't be cute with me." He snapped. "This vehicle belongs to known fugitives. So, I'll ask again: where are you going? Where are you coming from?"
"Oh, well, if you want to know where I'm from…" Kevin gave a casual shrug of the shoulders and absorbed the 'Everything Proof' car paint of his hood. Covering his whole body in dark blue invulnerable armor. "I just left Vulkanus' Taydenite factory. You might say, I went out with a bang."
The Chimera Sui Generis took a step back in shock, his face tentacles swaying in agitation. It was only a day ago, but the Vilgaxian LEOs have to have been alerted of the hit on the factory by now. Everyone would know Vulkanus' place was hit by rebels and destroyed. …And Kevin just claimed the destruction as his own. True he actually had little to do with the actual distraction of the mine-factory-prison hole, but the Chimera Sui Generis officer didn't know that and he was suddenly feeling out of his depth.
Twenty minutes later, Kevin was back on the road, once again heading for Bellwood. In the back of his car was a standard issue Chimera Sui Generis hand blaster, a riot baton, and com link tuned to the Vilgaxian martial law enforcement frequency.
The Chimera Sui Generis officer was left alive. Tied up in the backseat of his own patrol car. With a note pinned to his chest.
'To Gwendolyn Levin,
'We need to talk.
'-Kevin'
…