Chapter 25: Turning Up The Heat

I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters

A/N: Hello and welcome to chapter twenty five! In this chapter, Leon and Ben will engage in an arguement before fighting a resurrected Animo. A lot of you will be saying: But Animo was killed off in the last chapter! Well, don't worry. You'll see that in this story, any dead characters won't stay dead for long. After this chapter, Lucky Girl will finally be making her appearance in the Lucky Girl story arc. And after that, Ben will be facing his first super villain team, the team appearing in a sort of epilogue at the end of the chapter. Without anything else to be said, let's get on with the chapter!

Ben

The echo of the gunshot rang in my ears. The spray of blood that came from Animo's gunshot wound to the head hit me in the face. I wiped the blood from my mask, as I realized what Leon had done.

"What the hell have you done?" I asked.

Leon pulled back on his handgun, uncocking it.

"I got revenge." he said. "Sweet, sweet revenge."

"It wasn't up to you! You can't just kill! There has to be a judge, a jury! An-" I began to speak, but Leon interrupted me, pointing his gun at me.

I backed up out of fear.

"Shut your fucking mouth." he said, as he cocked the handgun. "I gave you a chance to quit. I gave you a chance to go back to whatever hole you came from. And you didn't listen!"

"I didn't listen?!" I exclaimed. "What about you?! You didn't listen! Leon, you can't just go around killing people, no matter what happened in your past!"

"Scream at me again. Do it and I will shoot you and kill you. Right here and right now." Leon said, sounding very angry.

I slowly walked up to Leon, until the barrel of his handgun pressed into my forehead. I slowly and gently grabbed his wrist and lowered the gun forcefully.

"No. You won't." I said. "What you are going to do, is surrender. You're going to lay down your gun and turn yourself in for the murder of Animo."

"You think that I'll surrender?!" Leon asked, pushing me backwards, onto the ground. "Now, I'm going to kill you! You should have been there for my family, but you weren't! I have to kill you!"

Leon pointed his gun at me.

"Any last words?" he asked.

I slowly got up, Leon keeping his aim on my head the whole way up.

"You give me no choice." I said, as I reached for the alien watch. "I have to take you in."

But before I could dial up the watch, I heard an loud scream of agony. And it wasn't Leon. He and I both looked over to Animo's body, to see Animo was holding his head as he screamed in agony.

"B-b-but, I killed him!" Leon gasped, as we walked up to Animo.

I looked down at Animo, as he continued to scream. That's when I noticed the hole in his forehead, or rather, the lack of a hole in his head.

I remembered when Grandpa Max had told me about Animo's past. If he could have made himself into a giant goliath, did he have a healing factor, too?

Animo's screams gradually changed from agony filled screams, to rage filled screams. Eventually, his screams stopped and were replaced of growls of anger. He moved his hands away from his eyes, revealing his eyes to be glowing green.

Leon and I both backed up, as we watched Animo's body begin to rip through his clothes. Yes, you heard me right. Leon and I both exchanged glances of fear, before looking back at Animo, as he grew exponentially in size.

He eventually stopped growing in size, being even bigger than Kevin's mutated alien form and bigger than Fourarms! So, he was big! He had green hair, instead of his gray hair and his eyes remained the glowing green. His skin was pale white and his muscle density had increased greatly. The only clothes had left were the pants he had been wearing, which were torn just above his knees.

And it was true. He had long, talon-like fingers.

The monster that used to be Animo just stood there, growling angrily.

"What the fuck?" Leon asked, his voice surprising full of fear.

"Don't move. Maybe his vision is based on our movement." I said.

The monster looked at me, his growls becoming more aggressive. I didn't dare move. He finally took one step and I think that was it for Leon. He dove for one of his guns and the beast let out a roar of fury.

As he went for Leon, no matter how much I hated him for almost killing Animo, I decided to distract savage Animo. Yeah, that's what I'll call him. Savage Animo.

"Here!" I exclaimed, as I jumped in front of Savage Animo.

Once I was in front of him, Savage Animo roared with fury as he beat his chest. He got into a striking stance and just before he struck, I lept out of the way, narrowly missing being struck. However, he grazed my bad shoulder with his talon.

"Agh!" I screamed, as I fell to the ground.

I turned around, to see that Savage Animo had gotten his talons stuck into the floor of the roof. He seemed to be struggle to free himself, so I ran over to Leon, as he got his gun ready.

"What are you doing?!" I exclaimed.

"I'm gonna kill him before he can kill us." Leon said.

"Are you kidding me?!" I said. "I can't allow you to do that."

Leon might have spoken to me, but I heard Savage Animo roar from behind us. I turned around, just in time to see him running towards us. We both moved out of the way, as Savage Animo slammed both of his fists into the ground, sending Leon's firearms all over.

"Buy me some time!" Leon said, as ran to a pile of his weapons.

I didn't have time to protest, so I dialed up the alien watch. I transformed into Fourarms and ran over to attempt to contain Savage Animo. I jumped onto his back and held him in a headlock.

He let out a roar as he staggered around, trying to throw me off of his back.

"You're still a little man in there Animo!" I exclaimed. "Now calm down before I have to snap your neck!"

He let out a louder roar and began to struggle harder. In retaliation, I move my hands to his neck and began to pull. But Savage Animo managed to grab hold of me and threw me over his shoulder.

I quickly recovered and got back up to continue combating Savage Animo. He was surprisingly good at countering my attacks. He would counter almost all of the punchs I threw and then would attempt to strike me or he would knee me in the stomach.

A few seconds later, I heard gunfire. And a mixture of Savage Animo's agony and rage filled screams.

"I think you pissed him off!" I exclaimed.

Savage Animo got down on one knee and just stayed like that. That's when I noticed him grunting in pain and I heard the sounds of the bullets that Leon had fired into him, just popping out of his back.

I ran around him to look at his back and was astonished to see that the slits in his skin - from the bullets - were healing in just micro seconds. It was like Leon hadn't unloaded an entire clip on his back.

"We might be in trouble." I said.

"Yeah." Leon said, as he backed up. "Buy me some more time!"

I let out a sigh as he ran to the other end of the roof and began digging through another pile of his weapons. I heard Savage Animo let out a roar of fury. I turned around, just in time to see him charging towards me. I didn't have time to move out of the way and he collided with me, continuing to charge, as if I were a battering ram.

Savage Animo rammed me into the wall of a taller building, adjacent to the roof we were gone. Instead of attempting to impale me with his finger talons, he began hitting me with force. I put my feet up against his chest and kicked Savage Animo backwards.

I charged towards him and put as much force as I could into punching him in the jaw. He staggered backwards and after letting out a roar of rage, started throwing strikes at me with his talons, trying to cut me.

I kept backing up, dodging his attacks. I heard Leon running up behind him and begin blasting Savage Animo in the back with a shotgun several times. Savage Animo let out a furious roar and turned to attack Leon.

I noticed the wounds on his back, and skin missing. But the skin began to regenerate rapidly. And Leon shot Savage Animo in the face. And even that didn't stop him! Savage Animo staggered backwards and whirled around, revealing a hole in the upper right corner of his face. I could see parts of his skull.

But I didn't see those parts for long, as Savage Animo's face quickly regenerated. He seemed to move his neck in such a way to pop it and then charged me again. I charged towards him and punched him in the jaw as hard as I could, causing him to go off course.

Once he was off course, I looked at Leon.

"Can you conjure up something that will actually put him down for more than a second?" I asked.

"Give me some time." he said, as he ran over to another pile of weapons.

I let out a sigh, as I turned to see Savage Animo slowly stepping up to me.

"Dr. Animo! I know you're still in there!" I exclaimed. "It's time to calm down!"

Savage Animo obviously didn't have a revelation, because he let out a very loud roar of fury and charged towards me faster than he had done before. I charged forwards as well, meeting with him and trying to push him backwards. I managed to push him backwards, but only by a little bit. Savage Animo was even stronger than Fourarms it seemed.

I summoned all of the strength I could and continued to push him back. Then, Savage Animo pushed me back even harder, sending me backwards. He was about to charge towards me again, when all of a sudden, Leon shouted at me.

"Get down! Now!" he exclaimed.

I turned to look at him, as Savage Animo seemed to do the same. Leon was holding one of his M16 rifles, with what looked like an underbarrel launcher.

"Oh shit." I cursed under my breath, as I hit the deck.

I heard the sound of the laucher firing, accompanied with the sound of Savage Animo's pained screams. His screams ceased not even a second later, when I heard a loud explosion, followed by the feeling of blood splattering on the back of my jacket and I could of sworn I felt pieces of meat as well.

I got up, to see Savage Animo just standing there, motionless. He was groaning silently with pain. I noticed the gaping hole in his stomach, signature of the grenade he had taken. It was so big, that I could see parts of his spine. His eyes rolled back up into his head and he fell over, causing a loud crash when he met the floor of the roof.

Breathing heavily, I looked at Leon. He dropped the rifle, as he took a breath.

"We even?" I asked.

"Yeah. I think so." he said.

We stood there for a minute, not noticing that Savage Animo was slowly getting up. We finally did notice, when he started grunting. We looked in his direction, to see that he had stood back up and was grunting in pain.

"What the hell? Come on!" I exclaimed.

Savage Animo still had the hole in his stomach. But not for long. The veins, arteries, muscle structure and skin was slowly regenerating. But it started to regenerate faster and faster.

"We are in big doo-doo dis time." I said, my voice full of fear.

Leon looked at me with an uncertain look on his face.

"Did you just quote that Gungan Captain from The Phantom Menace?" he asked.

"Maybe I did." I replied, as Savage Animo finished regenerating.

"Alien Guy?" Leon asked, as Savage Animo began to growl angrily.

"What?" I asked.

"You're an idiot." he said.

"Oh, yeah." I replied in return.

Savage Animo let out a roar of fury as he charged towards me, ready to strike. I closed my eyes and awaited the strike. But it never occurred. I heard the sound of flesh tearing accompanied with Savage Animo's agitated screams.

I opened my eyes, to see that Savage Animo had a grappling hook stuck into his back and was being carried off of the roof, as he waved his arms about, trying to free himself.

"What the hell?" I asked, as I looked up at the small aircraft carrying him off.

"Sorry, my friend! I must borrow this one from you for a while!" I heard a familiar voice.

I looked up to see Vilgax hanging out of the open door of the aircraft, holding the grappel gun that was pulling Savage Animo into the air.

"Vilgax!" I exclaimed.

He ignored me.

"Get us out of here!" he called to the pilot, I was guessing. "We're done here! Sit tight my friend, you'll see us again soon!"

I sighed, as I saw the ship moving out of sight. I turned around, to see Leon pointing a rifle at me.

"I don't understand." I said, as he looked at me with hate.

"No. You don't. I'm going after Animo and that thing. And this time, you won't stop me!" he said.

"I thought we were even." I said.

"We were. And then you let Animo get away." Leon said. "And now I'm going after him. And you won't stop me."

"I can't stop you. But I need to help you. You don't know Vilgax." I said. "He's dangerous."

"No. You're not getting in my way anymore." Leon said. "Good bye, Alien Guy."

Before he could fire at me, I charged him and got one set of my arms around him, sending us off of the roof. When we were on the ground, he began shouting at me.

"It's your fault that Animo got taken by that thing!" he exclaimed, as he drew his pistol from it's holster. "And now I'm going to make sure you don't get in my way ever again!"

He fired at me, but the gunfire didn't seem to hurt me in my Fourarms form. I approached him and picked him up with one of my hands.

"Don't make me do this. Don't make me have to hurt you." I said.

Leon struggled against my grip, before managing to shoot me. I let out a grunt of anger, as I slammed him into the hood of a car. He recovered after only a few seconds and started shooting at me again. I dodged the bullets, for reasons I didn't know, since they didn't hurt me.

"Stop making me do this!" I exclaimed.

He ignored me and started hitting me with the butt of his pistol, seeing as it was out of ammo.

If he's going to keep trying to kill me, I have to get him away from here.

So, I started leaping, to get us to a less crowded area. I kept leaping with him in my grip, until we were at a deserted gas station. When we landed, my foot connected with the ground wrong, causing me to trip and fall. Leon fell out of my grip and rolled himself away from me.

I got to cover myself, as I heard him reloading his pistol. He started firing, which all things considered, was a terrible idea on his part. I emerged from my cover, with the intent of warning him.

"Leon, stop shooting! You shouldn't be shooting with these gas pumps around us! You could hit one!" I exclaimed.

He didn't regard my warning.

"I'm going to kill you tonight, Alien Guy!" he exclaimed, as he continued shooting.

I took cover again, hissing in frusteration as I heard one of his bullets hit something metal. Being curious and fearful, I peaked around my cover, to see what he had hit. The first thing I saw was the dark brownish liquid flowing out onto the ground.

Oh, shit. The gasoline!

I fully emerged from my cover again. I began to shout at Leon.

"Leon, stop fi-"

BANG!

A Few Minutes Later...

When I came to, I was back in my human form. There were flames everywhere. All of the stations, tanks, whatever, had exploded. It would be a wonder if Leon was still alive. And as my luck would have it, he was still alive. Possibly crippled. But alive.

I got up and walked around, looking for him. And eventually I found him. The flames from the explosion had charred what was left of his skin. It looked like his clothes had been burned to his body in some areas. But the worst part? He was still alive through it all. It must have been slow and painful.

And he was also still conscious. He noticed me.

"Leon!" I gasped, upon seeing him.

His hair was gone. The flames had practically cooked him. Charred to a crisp.

He looked at me and even with his severely disfigured face, I could see the hate in his eyes.

"I hate you." he slurred, with an accompanied gurgling sound.

I just looked at him.

After calling 911 and reporting our position, I looked back down at him. I got on one knee so I was closer to him.

"The paramedics will do what they can." I said, my voice full of sorrow. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Leon."

He looked at me with that same hateful look.

"F-f-fuck y-you." he slurred.

I sighed and shook my head as I got up. I slowly walked away, with my hands in my pocket. Whatever would happen to Leon, my troubles with him were over. And as for my life? He was right. I wasn't ready to be an anti-hero. So tomorrow, I was going back home to see Gwen.

Epilogue

?

"Bring him in." I said.

The giant hanger doors opened and Vilgax wheeled in our recruit, who was strapped to a stretcher, which was adjusted so he was upright, instead of laying down.

"Here he is, your majesty." Vilgax said.

I grinned.

"I love that title." I said, as I tapped my talon to the arm of my chair. I got up and slowly made my way over to our recruit. "Let's see, who do we have today?"

"Vilgax, Aloysius James Animo, -"

I was about to continue, when Animo let out a roar of fury. I looked at Vilgax.

"Christ, Vilgax. Is Animo's inhibitor chip on?" I asked.

Animo cleared his throat.

"Sorry about that." he said. "I'm not quite used to being able to control myself in this form."

"Animo, we had that chip made and implanted into the base of your neck so you can actually control yourself. Try to focus." I said. "And don't let it happen again."

Animo nodded.

"Anyway, we have our latest recruit, Leon Jones." I said.

I looked at Leon, strapped into his stretcher.

"I want to see a world without Alien Guy." I said. "With our combined strength, the team I'm putting together, we can crush Alien Guy. Vilgax, open the chamber."

Vilgax walked over to said chamber and opened it, revealing the black and purple armored suit that we had specifically made for Leon.

I turned to look at Leon.

"You get in that suit, you can breath normally, walk again and so much more. You'll be a force to be wreckened with, a walking, breathing tank. You in?" I asked.

Leon didn't speak for a minute.

"Yeah." he slurred.

I grinned.

"Good." I said, as I turned myself around.

We only had one more member to fill the team and after that, Ben Tennyson would be crushed. Nothing will stop the Insidious Seven!

A/N: So, what did you guys think of this chapter? What did you think of the fight between, Ben, Leon and Savage Animo? And then the fight between Leon and Ben that would end in a explosion? Who do you think this mysterious leader of the Insidious Seven is, that was displayed in the epilogue? Anyway, can you guys guess who the villain Leon is shaping up to be? Anyway, I'm gonna go guys, be here for the next chapter, the start of the Lucky Girl arc, and I'll be back next week with a new chapter!