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 Eleven: Clusterkriff Fight
"Dev, don't-" Kenny tried.
But the second the younger boy opened his mouth the moment was broken. Kenny blinked and Devlin tightened his hand over the faux-Omnitrix as he absorbed its power.
It was incredible. Different from anything Devlin had ever absorbed before. A strange cocktail of different life-energies and powers of various creatures, blended with the electrical and mechanical charges that allowed the watch to function. No wonder absorbing the Omnitrix always turned Kevin crazy. If a cheap knock-off-Omnitrix felt like this! What must the real thing be like…? Devlin lost himself in the sensation. Suddenly giddy -almost drunk- with the feeling of power that now coursed through him. …And he wanted more…
A shudder passed through the Osmosian's body as his shape changed. One arm morphing from Vulpimancer to Galvanic Mechamorph tentacle. His face strained as his sinuses were once again displaced by his eyes changing shape and position. His jaw creaked as it changed from Ripjaws to Upchuck's. There was a sudden headache when Waybig's head ornament sprouted from his forehead and Snare-oh's bandages wrapped themselves over his back and around his torso.
Devlin's grip loosened on the other boy's wrist and Kenny jerked his hand way.
But more than just the physical changes that came along with absorbing life-energy, there was one other difference Devlin had never noticed before. With all the power already coursing through his body, his vision changed. He could see energy now. The cables and wiring concealed behind the walls glowed as clearly and brightly as if they were right before his eyes. Thin rivers of copper and gold flowing with electrical power. Warm and inviting. And Kenny…
Kenny was a battery of energy all to himself. Glowing in Devlin's eyes with star sapphire light. The energy of life -mana. Burning hot and bright, Devlin could almost taste him! He'd absorbed mana before, but the young Osmosian had never really taken the time to noticed just how deliciously intoxicating it really was. Pure energy. Pure life. Pure power. Devlin wanted it.
"Kenny… you've been holding out on me…" He grinned.
The younger boy had never heard his cousin sound like that. But then, Devlin had never absorbed the Omnitrix before, either. Kenny had absolutely no idea what to do, and with his watch now drained of power there wasn't really anything else he could do against his cousin but run. Run fast! Oh, god! How was he going to outrun Devlin when he had XLR8's speed?
But it wasn't like there were many other options open to him. So, Kenny ran.
As fast as he kriffing could!
He rounded a corner, but there was Devlin. Grinning with that disturbing grin. Leering down at him like he wanted to… Kenny couldn't even think of what Devlin might be thinking of doing to him. He turned and ran in the other direction.
But Devlin was there too.
He was just toying with Kenny. If he wanted to kill or absorb the younger boy he could do it at any time. With the watch drained he was completely at his older cousin's mercy. For the first time in his life, Kenny was actually afraid of his cousin. For the first time in his life, Kenny felt helpless and he didn't know what to do. He never would have imagined, not in a million years of eleven parallel demotions that Devlin would turn on him.
Two arms closed around his shoulders, a Tetramand and a Vulpimancer. Devlin picked Kenny up, lifting the younger boy up to eye-level. Kenny stared into mismatched and unfocused red eyes. Staring at him with cloudy hunger.
"All this time… I never knew…" Whispered the Osmosian.
"Dev… Snap out of it. This isn't you." Kenny pleaded. "You don't like absorbing stuff. Remember. Its a bad guy thing. Its a Kevin thing. You don't wanna be like Kevin, do you?"
The hunger in his eyes turned to sudden rage and Devlin slammed Kenny to the ground -hard!
"Stop comparing me to him!" The Osmosian snarled. "I'm nothing like him! I'm better than him!"
With a groan, Kenny pushed himself on to his knees and looked up at Devlin. Truth be told, Kenny had no idea how accurate his assessment was. He had certainly never witnessed any of the times Kevin had absorbed the Omnitrix, only just heard stories. But from what he had heard, the only difference between Kevin and Devlin was that Devlin hadn't absorbed the real Omnitrix. A difference that did not seem all that significant to Kenny at this exact moment. And, as Kenny knew from the stories, it was impossible to talk an Osmosian down when they were on a literal Power Trip.
Still, Kenny tired. "Then prove it! Prove to me you're better than Kevin! Change back. Release the energy you took and go back to normal."
"Normal?" Devlin echoed, laughing low in the back of his throat. A deep, dark, rumbling, inhuman laugh that sent chills running up the other boy's spine. "What's 'normal' in this family? Really?"
He picked Kenny up again. This time using the Mechamorph tentacle. Slithering the long pliant limb around Kenny's body like a hungry serpent. Once again on eye level, Devlin continued. "But you've always been with me, Kenny. For as long as I can remember, we've always been together… Why don't we grow closer?"
Swallowing a nervous lump of terror that had formed in the back of his throat, Kenny asked, "What does that mean?"
"It means… I want you inside me!"
Kenny did not have an opportunity to be disgusted by that statement. Before the words were even finished, Devlin began absorbing his cousin's life-energy. Kenny winced, his whole body going tense as his very essence was ripped from his living flesh and syphoned into the Osmosian.
He was going to die! Dear god! Devlin was killing him!
Then something incredible happened. He was saved!
A blast of pure radiation, like the kind wielded by the Prypiotosian-B race, struck Devlin in the back and he dropped Kenny who -to spite his weakened state- managed to crawl away. When he was clear of the Osmosian he looked up at his rescuer, expecting to see his father as one of his aliens. Instead, Kenny looked up at the black proto-tech armor clad form of a Rooter. The human-Prypiotosian-B hybrid. What did Kevin say his name was…? Lawrence? Levi? Leander? Yeah! Leander, that was the one.
"Thanks." Kenny groaned, as he attempted to climb to his feet. He hoped that the Rooter wasn't gonna attack him too now. I mean, the guy was on the other team. He was technically a bad guy. He might have just been saving him from Devlin because of some diabolical and convoluted bad guy reason. But for some reason, Kenny got the idea that that wasn't the case.
Leander stepped between Kenny and the Osmosian, bringing his hands up and in quick, agitated motions, signed a question. Wait. Leander had to sign? He couldn't just talk?
"Stay out of this, Leander!" Devlin snarled. "This has nothing to do with you!"
The mute Rooter signed something else.
"I don't care what's going on with the Proctor right now. Kenny is mine!" And Devlin attacked.
The Osmosian jumped at the Prypiotosian-B hybrid and Leander lifted his head to shoot another blast of radiation through the grill over his faceplate just as Kenny's watch beeped that it was finally recharged again. It took a bit longer because it had been completely drained instead of just timing out. Kenny slammed his hand down on it, not caring what alien it might give him. Just as Devlin grabbed Leander and absorbed his radioactive life from him.
Kenny transformed into XLR8 and sped away, not even bothering to look back and see if Devlin left the Rooter completely empty -dead- or just drained, unconcious but still alive.
Their speeds were matched now and Devlin followed Kenny through the base, calling taunts and jeers after him. Maybe rushing off without a plan or even fully understanding what he was getting into wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. But if Kenny could find Dad or Aunt Gwendolyn, then one of them could fix this. They always managed to fix Kevin in all the stories. They could fix Devlin too.
He just had to find them.
…
"You don't get it do you?" Kevin snarled. "You were the real target here, Tennyson. You're the Coming Storm!"
If they weren't in the middle of a fight and had the time to pause, Ben would have stopped to gape at his friend. Him the Coming Storm? He was the great and terrible enemy the Rooters had devoted their lives to defeating? But, he wasn't a bad guy. In fact, he had saved the universe almost half a dozen times by now. How could the Rooters -never mind the Rooters, how could any Plumbers team- think he was a danger or a threat that had to be removed?
"That doesn't make sense!" Ben might have said more. But at that moment was when the bubble shield Gwen had trapped Billings and Ally in finally burst from the pressure of their combined fire and ice powers.
"Explanations later!" Alan snapped, once again placing himself between the kids and Ben and Kevin. Not so much to protect either man, but more to protect his daughter from their aggressive self-defense. While the Pyronite knew Ben wouldn't intentionally hurt Ally, he had no such securities about Kevin. Kevin could be vicious.
Billings drew in a breath, but before the freezing attack could connect with the Pyronite, Gwen threw up a new mana shield.
"We need a plan." She informed the men. "None of us wanna hurt the kids, but so long as they're under Servantis' control they have no problem hurting us. That gives them an advantage."
"So we remove the one controlling them." Kevin turned from the fight before him and slaked back to the Proctor, laying prostrate on the floor with Swift unconscious next to him. He morphed one hand into a blade.
Servantis watched the Osmosian come, unable to move. He could have used his psychic powers to stop the man, but instead all he did was laugh. Laugh. "Oh… so like you, Kevin. Violence solves everything. But are you so sure killing me will return your friends' children to normal? Or, perhaps, without a master to direct them, their befuddled minds would break and they might go insane."
That got the other adults in the room's attention.
"Kevin, don't hurt him!" Alan, Manny, Ben, Helen and Gwen all shouted in unison.
"He's lying!" Kevin snarled back at them. "I've been inside his head. Its what he does! I can get rid of the mind control. I just need a bit more ability…"
The blade hand turned back into a real hand, the metal armor fading from Kevin's body as he bent down next to Servantis. His hand was almost around the older man's throat when they were once again distracted by the control room door opening once again.
A panicked streak of blue zipped into the room. There was the beeping chime of a time-out warning and then the blue blur spontaneously changed back into a human boy. Kenny skidded across the floor. Tripped over the sudden loss of speed. But kept tumbling with momentum until he collided with Kevin. Both men fell into a heap on the ground next to Servantis.
Fueled by adrenaline, Kenny was the first to recover, pushing himself up to his knees. He recognized the thing that broke his tumble as Kevin and grabbed the older man by the collar of his proto-tech armor.
"This is all your fault!"
"What?" Kevin blinked. But he didn't get the opportunity to wonder what the kid was talking about, because at that moment a monster crashed throughout the still open door.
Large and hulking. A mix of aliens in a combination Kevin hadn't seen before. The original ten were there. But there was also Galvanic Mechamorph, Gourmand, Loboan, To'kustar, and Thep Khufan. For half a second, Kevin didn't know what was going on or where this new creature had come from. But then his brain caught up with his surprise and he remembered there was only one other being in this base that had the potential to become something like that. His shock quickly turned to horror when he realized who it was and what must have happened.
"Holy Hell! Devlin pulled a Kevin!" Helen exclaimed before her distractedness allowed her to remain motionless and open long enough for Ally to get in one good fiery blast.
"Crap. I gotta deal with this now too!" Ben -in the form of Cannonbolt- moaned before he curled up into a ball and rolled across the room to sweep Kenny up in his protective armored hold.
Devlin ignored everyone else in the room and focused only on Kenny, currently rolling away within Cannonbolt's protective shell. "Kenny's mine!"
The Osmosian leapt at the Arburian Pelarota. Beating his Lepidopterran wings, Devlin crossed the space between them and got in front of the yellow ball of rolling armor that held his prey. Ben bounced off the Osmosian's knees, involuntarily uncurling himself from around his son. Kenny bounced away from his father and Devlin lunged after him.
Ben skidded across the floor. Landed on Kevin. And changed back into human form.
"Ooph! You couldn't have changed back before you landed on me!" Snarled the Osmosian.
Manny and Alan were busy with Ally and Billings.
Gwen divided her attention between shielding the men from the children, and now protecting her nephew from her son. She threw a bubble shield around Kenny just as Devlin was about to land on top of him. He bounced off his mother's shield, but didn't stay down long. The mount he realized the only thing between himself and his chosen prey was just more delicious mana, he absorbed the bubble and was after Kenny again.
"Don't use your powers, Red!" Ben shouted at her. "Didn't you learn anything from Ultimate Kevin!"
That sparkced Kevin's memory. Back then all it look was a small taste of Gwen's tantalizing and addictive mana to drive him into a mad frenzy. Pursuing her at almost any cost to get at her. Gwen was able to turn him back with the help of Darkstar and Cooper. But Ben's solution was to kill him instead. With a new wave of panicked horror Kevin turned to Ben. "Tennyson! I swear if you-"
"Not now!" Ben was toggling through his Omnitrix again. Looking for something that could go up against an Osmosian without getting in close enough for said Osmosian to touch him. He was about to slam his hand down on Echo Echo when Kevin grabbed his wrist.
"Tennyson. I need to know what you're thinking." He growled.
"Let me go, Kevin. I know what I'm doing."
"I need to know what you're doing."
The battle between the Amalgams and the kids was still raging on around them, while Kenny was madly managing to evade his cousin, and Gwen desperately tried to help both groups while still keeping herself out of the main line of fire. All the wile, Servantis laid there and laughed.
"I'm gonna stop Devlin and save my son." Ben said as if this should have been obvious.
"How?" Kevin pressed. "Tennyson, thats my son too. I need to know what you're gonna do to him. Or else… or else I won't let you."
Then Ben asked what was probably the dumbest question he could have said to an Osmosian who already hand his hand dangerously close to the Omnitrix. "And how would you stop me?"
"Like this."
In hindsight, Ben should have know this would happen. What Kevin would do. He should not have been shocked when Kevin shifted his hand just enough to touch the watch face and absorb the Omnitrix. The real Omnitrix, not a tony reproduction, or Ultimatrix. But the real deal with over ten thousand aliens, all of their abilities and powers, and the watch's own power too.
Ben rolled away from Kevin's body which was suddenly shuddering from the change of a new mutation.
Crashhopper's legs below Shocksquat's torso, the Worst's fist on Gravattack's arm. Another arm from Bloxx. One wing from Pesky Dust, the other from Astrodactyl. The face was still mostly Kevin's own, but the mouth now came from Whampire, and was crowned by Ball Weevil's head ornament, and surrounded by a main of dark hair that shifted into Feedback's antennae half-way down his back.
"Damn it, Ben!" Gwen snarled at him.
"How is this my fault!?" Ben snapped back at her, slowly backing up from his on-again-off-again best friend.
Ben and Gwen came back-to-back to each other. Glancing around themselves, eyes wide with horror, at the chaos that raged. Helen, Manny, and Alan fighting Ally and Dylan Billings. Devlin in a newly mutated form trying to absorb Kenny, while Kenny ran, and jumped, and dodged madly for his life. And now Kevin, freshly mutated as well after absorbing the Omnitrix for -what was this, the fourth time now!?
"You focus on the kids." Ben commanded her. "Keep them from doing something they're gonna regret once we wake them up from Servantis' control. I'll take care of Kevin and Devlin."
"You can't fight them both on your own!" Gwen snapped back. Ben could barely handle Kevin alone.
"You can't fight either of them at all!" Ben snarled back. "Unless you want your own son or baby-daddy to absorb you too!"
"Will you two stop freaking out!" Kevin shouted over their mid-battle bickering. "I've never been saner." -They both looked skeptical.- "And I'll take care of all of this."
Now they knew he was crazy.
Kevin stretched his knew limbs and cracked his neck, taking a moment to get used to the new body he found himself in. Mutating bodies just wasn't as fun as it used to be. The rushed was gone. Replaced by just an old, tired feeling. Sure that he more or less had the hang of his new body -at least enough to do what he needed to do- the Osmosian stalked back to Servantis. Not Devlin. Not Ally and Billing. But the Proctor laying impotent on the floor.
He closed one Worst hand around the paralyzed man's throat and lifted him up off the floor. "It was an accident when I absorbed your power before. I'll be sure to get all of it this time."
And he slammed his forehead against Servantis'. The impact shattered the jewel on his head and his Cerebrocrustatian cranium split from the stews, hanging open, his brain exposed. Steam rose from both men. The Kevin released the Proctor and fell to the ground unconscious.
"How is settling a grudge helping?" Ben demanded.
Ignoring the Hero of the Universe, Kevin turned his attention to the kids. He jumped on Devlin, tackling the younger Osmosian to the ground. Holding him down. Pinning both wings with a pile of Bloxx's blocks. Holding as many of his arms, tentacles and other miscellaneous limbs down as best he could. Devlin struggled against him in his effort to get free and get at his cousin, but Kevin was bigger and had more powers and he kept the boy down.
When he was sure Devlin was adequately subdued, he turned his head, lifted the Feedback antennae and got a hold of Ally and billings. Each antennae plugging into the back of each teen's neck. Then he sent a charge of the psychic power he absorbed from Servatnis through the wires. Cleansed the children of their puppet strings and locked the door to their minds so that no other telepath or mind-reader could influence or control them again. Alan's caught Ally. Dylan Billings from the Weekend Academy. And… not Devlin?
Kevin released the other two and stared down at his son -now blissfully unconscious. Devlin hadn't been under mind control like the others.
"What did you do!?" Alan demanded, lifting his -also now unconscious- daughter up off the floor.
But the others wouldn't know that. He was the only one inside the kids' heads. He would be the only one who knew. Who ever knew that Devlin was just as crazy as he was and for a short time had turned his back on and betrayed his family and their friends. Kevin forced his expression into something lighthearted and relaxed. "I cleared out the mind control." He said. "And made it so that no one can control them again."
"I knew there was something wrong with Dev!" Kenny crawled to his cousin's side and held his unconscious hand. "Is this gonna be his new form now?"
"I don't know." Gwen admitted. She knelt next to her son and placed a hand to his now unfamiliar head to read his mana. After a few moments she withdrew her hand, shaking her head. "Devlin's got a pretty wide threshold for power thanks to me. But the Omnitrix is the most powerful weapon in the universe, its still to much for him. When he wakes up he'll be just as crazy as he was before Kevin tackled him."
"But Kevin got rid of the mind control. Right?" The younger boy insisted. "That means he'll be normal."
"We need to syphon off the surplus power first." Gwen said.
"I can take care of that too." Kevin placed one over-sized hand to the side of his son's head and absorbed the excess energy from Devlin.
The boy's form changed almost instantly. The extra limbs, mismatched eyes, head ornaments, claws, and wings, all melting back into his body. In less than a minute, the boy back in human form and -blissfully- clothed in the invulnerable proto-tech armor.
"You're surprisingly lucid." Manny observed.
His son normal again, Kevin turned from the boy to offer his friend a smile. Not something faked or forced but an actual smile. He was rather proud of himself. This was the most sane he'd been after absorbing the Omnitrix since… ever. "Yeah. I think that first bit of psychic power from Servantis really helped me out more than I realized."
"What about Minie?" Helen demanded. "Where's my daughter in all of this!?"
There was a pause i which everyone stood around glancing between one another. In all the commotion and confusion of battling the Rooters, Ben randomly showing up, and subduing the kids, no one really took the time to wonder where one little Kineceleran-Tetramand girl could be.
"Dev mentioned that she ran off and is hiding somewhere on the station." Kenny supplied. "He was looking for her when I ran into him."
Nobody seemed particularly assured by this information.
"C'mon." Kevin shrugged. "How hard could it be to find one kid?"
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Of course, having spent the last two decades in the Null Void, he did not have the privilege of watching Herminie Armstrong grow up and so did not understand just how much of a handful she could be. Minie was a master champion of Hide-in-Seek.
Luckily, they didn't have to search for her. Pierce stepped through the broken control room door at that very moment, carrying Minie on his hip.
"Hey guys. Am I late to the party again?" He glanced around the room. Devlin, Ally, and the Necrofriggian all unconscious. Servantis and Swift in a heap on the opposite side of the room, also unconscious. Everyone else looking exhausted but relived. "I found Minie."
Helen had crossed the room and was at her brother's side in less time than it took to blink his eyes. She pulled her daughter out of his arms and hugged her tightly. "You have no idea how relived I am to see you!"
"Mommy -eh!- I can't breath." The little girl gasped.
Everyone else seemed to find this very amusing and they shared a light laugh of camaraderie at mother and daughter being reunited.
"Well, as fun as this is -hamming it up after a victory-" Kevin began, lifting his own child up into his arms, "-I'm tired. Can we all just go home?"
…
"I managed to speak with the Magistrata directly." Max was explaining.
Everyone had gathered in the living room of the Plumber's Headquarters where they could have a beer to take the edge off or ice their wounds as needed while Max explained what he was up to while they were getting getting beat and delivering beatings.
"What did she say?" Asked Gwen.
"Apparently, Servantis has been slowly falling out of contact with her for a while." He continued. "A few late reports, Incomplete mission statements, documents going missing from his files… The Magistrata was already suspicious long before I called. This fiasco was just the catalyst she needed to pull the plug on the Rooters project entirely."
"Meaning…?" Alan prompted.
"Meaning they've been stripped of their ranks and privileges as Plumbers and returned to the status of regular civilians." Max explained. "Their base and all their weapons, their access, influence, and immunity -all gone. Pretty, much the only things they got to keep were the clothes on their backs. Servantis was taken in for medical treatment-" Here Max fixed Kevin with a pointed glare, "-apparently, he'll never walk again. When he's released from the main hospital on Galvan he'll serve a life sentence at one of the Incarcercon facilities."
"Good." Nodded the Osmosian. Let the bastard rot in Incarcercon. It was a fate Kevin would only ever wish on his most hated enemy, and Hector Servantis had earned that distinction.
"What about the rest of the Rooters?" Asked Helen.
"Without their base and weapons… they were just left in the Null Void."
There was a general rumbling of approval from the crowd.
"So, everything's pretty much resolved then." Ben said.
"We still need to figure out what to do about the kids when they wake up." Manny reminded everyone. "I mean, do we punish them, or not? They were under mind control so its not really their fault, but… Devlin and Ally did kidnap my little girl."
"We should also get in contact with Dylan Billing's parents." Gwen added. "We haven't heard anything from them during this whole fiasco. I'm sure they must be just as worried sick as we were."
"Dylan Billings is a ward of the state." Pierce supplied. As administrator overseeing the Weekend Academy, he had access to all cadet's files and information. "Kids run away or disappear from foster homes all the time. I doubt they seriously care that he hasn't been home in -what's it been, three days now?. If they are upset, its because they don't get to cash that extra five thousand terran check he brought in."
"So we take care of Dylan, too." Ben said with a shrug, as if this should have been obvious.
"He and Dev hate each other." Kenny informed his father. "Like, really, really hate each other. Dev kinda 'usurped' command of a training exercise from him when we first enrolled in the Academy and they've hated each other ever since."
"I didn't see any of that when they were trying to take Minie." Ben shook his head. They seemed to work together pretty cohesively. They even shared friendly mid-battle banter.
"Mind control." Manny reminded him. "Servantis probably had them all wired to work together without their personal problems getting in the way."
Gwen pursed her lips at that, but said nothing. If that was really the case, if Servantis had the kids wired so that their personal problems wouldn't get in the way of the missions he sent them on, then Devlin wouldn't have had that outburst where he basically told her she was a different person around Kevin and he didn't like her when she was around him. So, either Servantis' mind-control wasn't completely full proof, or else Devlin was somehow immune to it. That was a frightening thought, because it meant that her son had done everything of his own volition. That was a worrying thought.
"Why don't we wait until the kids wake up and we can talk to them before we start deciding what we're gonna do." Max suggested.
…