Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Ben 10: Alien force….or any other Ben 10 franchise for that matter…..man, I'm so lame…..
Hey DecemberSaturdayFan! Glad you liked it! I'm hoping that you'll like this chapter too.
Chapter 7-One hour and twenty minutes later
"A coma!", Sandra cried, her voice cracking." How…?"
The plumbers main Physician , a large grey haired man with a scraggly bear named Horace, sighed." Too much exposure. His body just gave out."
Carl glanced at his pale unmoving son with complete and utter desolation." He was fine an hour ago…"
Horace frowned." Well…now he's not."
Sandra chocked in a sob and Carl pulled her closer.
"Not to say I can't try to help him. I'll do what I can for him.", Horace said gruffly as he noticed the forlorn look of the kid's family's faces.
Kevin growled menacingly." No…you'll fix him."
Horace glared at the young man, but Kevin didn't care. As long as the man helped Ben, than he didn't care. Ben was all that mattered.
"Kevin!", Gwen said, obviously shocked at the older teens behavior.
"What? Ben's in a coma. I ain't gonna let him die 'cuz this guy'll "do what he can for him". He better fix 'im.", Kevin snarled ,turning to her sharply.
Max put a hand on the enraged teens shoulder." Yelling at Horace won't help him."
"I have to do something! We can't just do nothing!"
Julie sighed and moved forward." We won't, but fighting amongst ourselves won't help Ben."
Kevin sighed and sat down on a plastic chair." You're right…it's just…he's the hero…the hero's not supposed to die…"
Sandra smiled at him and moved from her husbands arms to his side." You're a good friend. My son's lucky to have you looking out for him…."Tears streaked down her cheeks and she glanced at her son.
He was pale as death, body limp and breaths shallow. All eyes on him, Horace checked the comatose teen out and frowned. Everything was fine. He was perfectly healthy, except for the fact that he was in a coma. What was going on?
"It doesn't make any sense." ,he said softly, brow furrowed in confusion.
"W-What…?", Sandra stuttered, eyes trained on him intensely.
"He should be fine. Nothing's wrong with him, besides being in a coma of course. Physically, he's fine. I can't understand it."
Max frowned and moved to his grandsons side." He's been going through changes lately. Alien changes. Maybe that's causing it?"
Horace looked down at Ben and sighed." Betcha that is it. I'll have to get Sal. He's an expert on half-alien phenomenon. He'll probably know a bit bout this. More than me anyway."
He quickly made his way out of the small room and left them alone with the comatose teen. For several minutes they stood in silence letting the day's events sink in. The silence was deafening, almost palpable in the air. Kevin frowned at the oppressive tension keeping them all silent and ,glancing at Ben, tried to channel the younger teens attitude and broke the silence with a slightly smartass question.
"Is anyone else a little bit wierded out by how often things like this have happened in the last week?"
He opened his eyes to a dingy gray fog filled version of Bellewood, like silent hill only real. Ash raining down around him and leaving piles on the street.
"Hello! Anybody here?", he called.
"Me…", a small voice replied.
He glanced around quickly, searching for the mysterious owner of the voice. "Who are you? Where are you?"
"I am me…and I am here."
He reached for the Omnitrix and frowned. It wasn't on his wrist where it belonged. "What do you want?"
The voice rang out from behind him, and he felt hot breath on his neck." Keep walking. Don't turn around. Move to the light."
Being Ben, he wasn't prone to following directions and this thing, this Me, seemed fishy to him ,so he turned around to face- himself. It was an exact replica of himself ,all the way down to the placement of each individual hair. It frowned at him and shook it's head.
"I told you to keep walking. I told you not to turn around. Now you're lost…"
The imitation-Ben faded into a fine grey dust and vanished. Ben reached out for it and gasped. He was in the woods. Actually, let's rephrase that, he was in the uber creepy woods from the Blair witch project. Gotta love creepy horror movie-esque towns and woods.
He sighed and glanced around." Follow the light? How very specific of Me. Sometimes I hate myself…"
He started slowly walking forward, halfway hoping Me would return. The fog seemed to swirl around him and part, like it knew he was coming and was making a path for him.
It seemed like forever before he got out of the wood and found himself in a misted clearing full of small balls of charred burning-coals?-that swirled about lazily. And smack dab in the middle of the clearing stood himself…again. Unlike Me however ,this one was his Majesdanian self…the one from his earlier dream.
"Hello there Ben.", It said softly, a small smile gracing it's lips. "We meet again…I knew you would chose me. You're too strong and independent to have chosen the human side of us. You chose well. The only question left…the only decision left to make is…What is the Light to you?"
Ambrose could taste it in the air, feel it in his soul. The boy was ascending. Now was his chance! He approached the plumbers base lazily. They were hardly a threat to him, only a minor nuisance at best. The boy would die.
Putting his hand out he blew the door in with a blast of crystalline light hotter than the sun…and more focused as well. The alarms blared, warning the entirety of the base about the intruder now walking through the halls carelessly. The sound drew Kevin and the others from the room where Ben lay and into the hall directly in front of the Majesdanian tyrant.
Kevin growled at him and covered his body in the steel of a gurney nearby." You again! Didn't we already beat you? "
Ambrose scoffed." I let you win."
" I don't care. You ain't getting Ben!", Kevin growled, sharing a ferocious look with Gwen.
"He said no.', The Anodite added." You can't make him go with you. We won't let you."
The chuckle Ambrose gave seemed to almost chill the air." I don't want to kidnap him. "
Max moved forward, laser cannon in hand." What do you want then?"
" I want to kill him."
Poor Ben. He's stuck in a freaky dream world while his family defends him. Anyhow, Please tell me what you think! I had fun making the dream scene. It was so unconstrained and mystical. I figure that the ascension should almost be a choice between staying human and becoming a Majesdanian, and (even more important)if he chooses Majesdanian, a choice between being like Ambrose and retaining his humanity(so to speak). Good logic?
Btw, sorry for the shortness of the chapter. The next one's gonna be Epic, with a full on violent battle scene and some blood! Woot!