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.
…Before Its Ever Even...
Chapter Ten: Enter Spanner
Dad wasn't home when Kenny arrived back at Plumbers HQ with his mother. But then, that was no surprise. The great Ben 10,000 was rarely home, even more so now that the Time War was happening from this end of the timeline now. So, it would just be Kenny, Kai, and Max for dinner. Another familiar set-up.
Grandpa cooked. That was aways a bit of a coin toss. Great-grandpa Max was actually a really good cook -when he actually cooked standard Earthling fair that is. More often than not, though, Max bought alien meats and produce from off-world imports, or extraterrestrial farmers markets. Tonight was one such night.
Kenny poked at his meat, which was purple in color and spongy in texture, and looked to the empty seat at the table where his father was supposed to usually sit. This was not the first family dinner Ben had been absent for, Kenny was no stranger to having dinner without his father. But there was just something that felt so off about his father not being present at a family dinner on the same night that Aunt Gwendolyn finally let Devlin's dad home to have dinner with them.
He would never say it out loud, Kenny knew better than to give voice to such a though, but it kinda felt like the closer Devlin's family got together, the farther his own family drifted apart. Kenny could not remember seeing his parents in the same room together more than once in the last week. Meanwhile, Aunt Gwendolyn and Kevin had spent most of the weekend together before Devlin's injury. When Devlin was injured, they came to the infirmary to see him together. After the Osmosian was kicked out, Gwendolyn left to check-up on Kevin. They were more than just technically still married, they were an actual couple. Kenny looked at his mother, then to his father's empty seat. His parents hadn't been a couple in years.
After a few bites of his dinner, Kenny decided he just wanted to get out of the room. He pushed his plate away. "May I please be excused? I have a lot of homework to do."
"Let me know if you need any help with your homework, okay." His mother told him as she nodded her permission to leave the table.
Kenny nodded as he pushed away from the table. Gathering his plate, he deposited it next to the kitchen sink before making a B-line for him room. Kenny threw his backpack on his bed, but he didn't even paused to glance at it, let alone opening it up and take out a textbook. Instead, the boy grabbed his hoverboard, opened his window and jumped out.
Wind rushed by his ears as Kenny let himself free-fall for a few moments. Eyes closed, enjoying the cold of the air and the bite of the sheer on his skin. Then he switched his board on, got it under his feet, and zoomed off through the sky. He didn't have any particular destination in mind, he wasn't heading in any specific direction. Much like when he stormed out on his tenth birthday party, Kenny was trying to outrun emotions he had no other outlet for and couldn't process on his own.
Normally, Kenny would head to Aunt Gwendolyn's house -to Devlin. But with Kevin spending the evening there (possibly the night?) that did not seem like an option.
So, he just flew aimlessly. Making large figure-8s around the city.
"Lovely night for brooding, isn't it." A voice commented from his left.
Kenny almost fell off his board from shock when he turned to see a man hovering in the air next to him. His torso poking out from a glowing green and pink circle that could only be described as a 'crack' in the air. The gap inside the circle looked as if it was from another part of space entirely. A wormhole, maybe? Kenny sputtered helplessly, some choice expletives tumbling from his lips as he both gaped in shock while simultaneously also trying not to fall to his death. The man grabbed his arm to help steady him and Kenny landed his hoverboard on the first available rooftop.
The man stepped the rest of the way out of his portal -Kenny decided to call it a portal- and joined him on the roof. The gap in space closing behind him.
Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Kenny had to actively tell himself that he was alive and he hadn't just had a fatal hoverboard accident, fallen to his death, and Mom and Dad weren't going to be planning his funeral any time soon. Devlin would still have his best friend in the morning.
"It seems I gave you quite a fright there." Said the man. "Come now, Kenneth, after listening to all your father's stories, you must know who I am. Is it really so shocking that we might meet?"
"Well, when you appear out of nowhere a million miles up in the air!" The boy snapped at him. Then he did a double take, blinking, and really looked at the mysterious madman. On the older side of middle aged, hair still its natural black with only the sides graying into a silver. Wearing a white lab coat with shoulder epaulettes and fringe, steampunk-style goggles, heavy gauntlet-style gloves, and clunky boots. His appearance was a bit more loud and in-your-face than the unassuming old military scientist Kenny had seen pictures of. But there was still no mistaking him. "Holy crap! You're Professor Paradox!"
"Got it in one." Smiled the old man. He pulled an old vintage pocket watch from his coat pocket and consulted the time. ('Time' being a relative term in this instance.) "And you, young man, are right on schedule for your appointment with destiny."
This statement was accompanied by an ominous gust of wind and Kenny couldn't help but snort at just how cheesy it felt. Like, Hollywood B-movie level of cliché. A dark night, city lights, a mysterious old man, the 'date with destiny' line, and a literal change in the wind. Kenny had to cover his face with his hand to hide his giggles.
"I beg your pardon." Professor Paradox blinked at him. "But did you just laugh at me?"
"Well, yeah." Kenny had to take in a deep breath to get himself back under control. "I mean, ya gotta admit, this whole set-up is totally cliché and lame." He spread his arms in a wide arc to indicate the open roof, the shift in the wind, the city lights, and the dark night.
"I'll have you know that meetings like this are a tradition!" Paradox informed the boy testily. "Why, when Ben first met me it was also a dark night. Destiny tends to happen at night. I can't imagine why. But it does. Its almost a law of the universe at this point."
Crossing his arms over his chest, Kenny set his feet and aimed a challenging glare at the Time Walker. "Okay, so what destiny am I gonna be meeting tonight?"
"Well, this is a fine attitude." Paradox humph'd. "I would have thought you'd be excited to be met by a time walking professor and told your destiny awaits you. After all, its this what you wanted? To work by Ben's side in the Time War, and possibly time crises beyond."
That changed Kenny's demeanor entirely. This wasn't another grown-up come to tell him that his coping mechanisms weren't healthy, or that he was irresponsible and needed to manage his emotions better. Paradox wasn't here to tell him how to live his life. Instead, Paradox was here to help him live his life the way he wanted. As a hero, like his father before him.
"Ah, ready to listen I see." The older man smiled. "Let us take a walk, shall we?"
Kenny snorted again. He couldn't help it. "A long walk off a short roof?"
"Oh, no, my dear boy." Paradox shook his head. "A long walk through an even longer time-stream."
He put a hand on the younger man's shoulder and the two of them were wrapped up in a wash of green. To any bystanders that might have looked out their window at that moment, they would have seen nothing more than a flash of green light leaving behind an empty, vacant roof. A single abandoned hoverboard the only indication that someone had been there.
Kenny felt more than heard a howling in his ears. Not the howling of beings, but more like the rush of air. Air moving so fast it was like a living thing. But there wasn't even the slightest of breeze on his skin. Light flashed through his eyes, visions of images and events streaking by so fast and so thin they were like needles of motion and color. Kenny felt almost motion sick, yet his body wasn't actually moving. It was the universe that was moving around him. The passing of space, planets rotating around suns, sun's rotating in their galaxies, galaxies rotating within the universe. A universe rotating around him and Paradox. And all of time spinning along with it. For one moment, Kenny honestly and truly was the center of the universe. The moment lasted only half a second, taking up the space between the tik and tok of a clock's gears. And it was also five billion years, as long as the Earth was old. Kenny shut his eyes against all the sensations that were overloading every organ he had.
But when he opened his eyes again, they had returned to real space.
The whole journey took only the time to blink his eyes.
Blinking a few more times, Kenny had to do a double-take to process what it was he was actually seeing.
'Destruction' was a good descriptor. The ground was littered with the remains of broken buildings. Shattered glass and bent frames of windows. Warped girders and crumbled concrete of walls. Collapsed street lights. Ribar sticking up from piles of cracked asphalt. Sidewalks and streets cracked and pot-marked from falling debris. All of it radiating outward from a central point.
Kenny followed the converging paths of destruction with his eyes. Expanding his view of the destruction. As he widened his gaze, Kenny began to recognize the broken city he was looking at. The layout of the streets. The remnants of the buildings. It was Bellwood. Bellwood lay in ruins. The point from which its destruction came was Plumbers Headquarters. If Kenny's recognition of the streets -the layouts and the buildings- was correct, then the center of it all was Plumbers HQ. But where the tower that Kenny called home usually stood was a smoking crater. A crater ass deep as the underground headquarters had been. The Plumbers building was utterly, totally, and completely gone. Just gone.
But in its place... a crack.
A crack in space.
Not like the smooth, round portal Professor Paradox had first appeared through. That one was small and obviously controlled.
This was a jagged fissure, stretching up from the depths of the creator and clawing its way into the sky, cutting through he dark of the night. And through that crack was a different landscape entirely. A swath of red. Crimson sky, mottled with shades of burgundy and fuchsia. Drifting in that sky, unanchored by the gravity of a planet, were islands of rock. Asteroids in shades of violet. Kenny had never been to the Null Void before, but he had seen pictures. Pictures enough to be able to recognize it when he saw it. That was the Null Void on the other side of that crack in space. Someone had torn open a rift between Earth and the Null Void. A rift that was not self-correcting. It was not closing. The very fabric of dimensions broken open. Cracked like an egg.
Kenny blinked up at Professor Paradox. "Why are you showing me this?"
"This-" Paradox indicated the destruction before them. Not only the destroyed city, representing countless lives lost, but also the crack in space, damage to the very universe itself. A wound in the laws of nature that reality herself could not heal. "-this is the worst case scenario. This is what might happen should all the parties fail in their respective tasks. I find it helps matters to show the worst possible outcome before charging young champions with a mission and responsibility beyond their years."
Paradox showed Ben a similarly destroyed Earth the first time they met in Los Solidad.
Kenny just gaped at the broken landscape. The broken sky. The broken universe. "How- how does this happen?"
"Oh, a number of things come together in an unfavorable way." Paradox answered cryptically. "I imagine you're already recognized the Null Void on the other side of that rift. One of the things that needs to happen to stop this is Kevin must take the Null Void deployment. Devlin must discover and learn to use the powers he got from his mother-"
"But Devlin doesn't have any powers from Aunt Gwend-"
"-and while all that is going on within out side, the enemy will still be moving." Paradox continued, ignoring Kenny's comment. He looked down at the boy, meeting the younger man's eyes. "We need to throw a spanner in their works."
Kenny just stared back at him.
Their eye-contact lasted longer than he was comfortable with. So he blinked, breaking the connection. "And let me guess, I'm supposed to be that spanner."
"If you like." Nodded the professor. He reached into a coat pocket and pulled out what looked like an innocuous and mundane looking belt buckle. Round and white with a green center. It was actually very similar to the one he already wore. Paradox handed it to him. "But you'll need this."
Kenny held out his hand, taking the otherwise normal looking belt buckle. "What is it?"
"A vortex manipulator. A time travel device." Supplied the professor. "You'll need it if you plan to join your father in the Time War."
At that announcement, Kenny looked up startled. It was true that he did want to work with his father more, participate in the Time war, help protect the universe and all that. But Kenny had only said as much out loud once. In a conversation with Devlin. In a private conversation with Devlin. How did Professor Paradox know about that?
"I believe there was also some discussion about concealing your identity." Paradox added. "The sentai aesthetic was mentioned."
Seriously! How did he know?
Paradox had to actually open his coat for his one, but from inside his coat he pulled a full body suit, complete with boots, scarf and a helmet that would cover his whole face and conceal his identity. Kenny took the suit in his hands, feeling the fabric. It was very similar to what they made proto-tech armor out of. Strong, but light weight and pliable. It felt like something that would hug every contour of his body, showing off every muscle. Kenny was already feeling a little self-conscious and he hadn't even put the thing on yet.
"What am I supposed to do?" He finally asked at length.
"Oh, a number of things..." Paradox sighed. "Retrieve a Techadon troop carrier, recapture Dr. Animo, bring Devlin back to his present after Maltruant sends him back to 2018, make coffee... general time travel things. You know how it is. Or, you will know how it is." He consulted his watch again. "But in the meantime I think you should just get used to the vortex manipulator. Practice with it. And maybe break in your sentai suit. You know, I put blasters in the arms and added rockets to the boots. Children love rocket boots!"
Kenny looked at the white sentai costume in his hands again. This time, his eyes fell on the faux-Omnitrix on his wrist. "What about the Omnetrix?"
"Well, should I still use it?" The boy asked, as if this should have been a much more important issue to address. Certainly he felt it was more important than providing a costume.
"I imagine you would blow your secret identity rather quickly if you were to use an Omnitrix in front of any version of your father." The professor reminded him.
"Right." Kenny nodded, realizing that it was actually a stupid question. He should have known that. Maybe he wasn't as smart as he thought he was. Or, maybe Professor Paradox just had knowledge he did not -being the Time Walker and all- and knew what would and would not be important.
Paradox consulted his watch again. "In any event, I must be getting on my way. Calvin Coolidge owes me five dollars and I want to collect before the Market Crash."
He was gone in a flash of green light. One moment he was there, then, in the time it took to blink his eyes, he wasn't.
Kenny stared at the spot the professor had just vanished from. He looked up at the empty night sky. Complete empty, no airplanes, satellites, or even a moon and stars. Just darkness. He looked back to the crack in space, the Null Void looming beyond. Even the asteroids drifting on the other side looked blasted and broken. Everything in the possible future seemed wrong. And Paradox had just left Kenny here. Alone.
"How am I supposed to get home?" He asked of the empty landscape.
There was another flash of green light and a note materialized out of thin air in front of him. It drifted down to land on top of the costume Kenny was still holding, face up so that he could clearly read the words written on it. 'Use the device I just gave you.'
…
Ben was tangled up in socks.
Or, rather, Ben as Ball Weevil was tangled up in socks. It didn't occur to the Hero of the Universe to just transform back into his human shape, or maybe shift to a different alien. No. With Sunder's axe bearing down on him all the teenage Hero could think of was to struggle and dodge.
Sunder brought the axe down, seemingly aiming for Ben's head, but he had skewed the blow a little to the right -his right. So Ben went left -Sunder's left- to dodge it. He did dodge it successfully. But because he was tangled up in the socks, Ball Weevil couldn't actually escape. Once they were pulled taught, the socks snapped back like a rubber band, pulling Ben right back to crash directly in front of Sunder again. This time when Sunder brought his axe down, he skewed the blow left -his left. But Ben dodged right -Sunder's right- and the same thing happened again. Ball Weevil escaped the blow, but was pulled back by the socks.
It looked like things were over for the Hero of the Universe. He couldn't get out of the alien footwear in which he was tangled and he couldn't keep dodging Sunder's attacks forever. If the Omnitrix didn't time out soon, or if Rook didn't appear on the scene to back him up, or if any number of other incredibly unlikely (but still unreasonably frequent) things that happened to help Ben out happened... then Ben would be a gonner.
But, as luck -or destiny- would have it. One such unlikely thing did happen.
Jumping down from a pipe in the ceiling of Undertown, a blur of white and green collided with Sunder.
The bounty hunter was thrown back by the force of the blow, and the white and green blur planted itself firmly between Ben and the temporarily neutralized threat.
"Thanks!" Ben was quick to shout. Then he blinked. Not moving so quickly anymore, he was able to get a good look at his rescuer. An all white body suit with black trim. Bright green scarf wrapped around his neck. White helmet that covered the whole face, completely concealing his identity. "Hey, it's you! You're-"
But then Ben faltered, because he still didn't actually know who this guy was. An ally obviously, since he helped with that thing with Dr. Animo. But beyond that, Ben knew next to nothing about him. Not even his name.
Luckily, this time, the mysterious masked stranger was obliging enough to provide at least that small bit of information. Without even looking back at Ben, he supplied, "Spanner."
…
( A/N: Okay, so I wasn't planning this, but I'm really happy that this chapter, the tenth chapter, chapter 10, is a Kenny chapter. This chapter was almost called 'Ken 10 No More'. )