You guys don't even want to know why this took so long.
Lisazure- Giant hammers aside, that's Mister to you.
Flaming Shadowing- Thank you! Huh, you actually brought up a dangling plot thread I had forgotten about! I can see I'll have to be as crafty as ever with readers like you about.
Starshadow117- I hope he pulls through too. Here's hoping you like this update just as much as the last one!
PhantomGirl12- Glad to hear it! Here's an update!
Faiga-Lani- Itch no more, update is here!
And, with that, Chappa!
Chapter 36: Dark, Then Light
Klecks was forced to duck back around the corner as his employer opened the door to the fiery room and quickly stepped back inside.
00000000000000
"I want to see Ben." Gwen repeated, speaking firmly and slowly, head tilted ever so slightly downward.
"Now, Gwen," Max flicked the intercom on with his good hand, keeping eye contact with his granddaughter. "I want to see him as much as you do, but he's in a delicate-"
"I want to see Ben." The child interrupted, balling her hands into fists. "You can't keep me from him."
"Gwen, please," The ex-plumber tried to reason with her. "The safest thing for him-"
"The safest thing for all of you, you mean." The redhead snorted. "Can't have the weapons coming into contact with each other, can we?"
"Oh drak, she knows." Gwendolyn whispered, eye widening.
"Yeah," Gwen affirmed. "I know everything. And I. Want. To. See. Ben!" She growled. "NOW!" Gwendolyn immediately pulled out her hand-com, practically yelling into it.
"I need a complete lockdown of sector-!" She was cut off as Gwen let out a screech, throwing herself through the observation window.
"Project REAPER Audio Comman- Augh!" The Phantalin's frantic code-calling quickly turned into a cry of pain as the incensed girl tackled her.
"SHUT UP!" Gwen screamed, raking her nails across the researcher's 'face'. "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!! I'm not some machine! You can't shut me down like you did to Four, like you did to Pen!" She punctuated each shout with a swipe of her ever-lengthening claws, sending ribbons of the shadowy material that made up the Phantalin's outer shell flying. "Your codes and commands don't control me; I'M A PERSON, DAMN YOU!"
"Gwen!" Max appeared behind the child, quickly pinning her arms in a one-armed bear hug. "Gwen, stop!"
"Stay out of this, Grandpa!" Gwen yelled, planting both feet into his stomach and breaking away from him. She glared at him menacingly with her now red eyes. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you make me." she threatened.
"Stop this, please!" Her grandfather implored her, hands held out in a placating gesture. "You aren't thinking rationally!" As he spoke, Gwendolyn slowly rose up behind the child, pressing the panic button on her hand-com. The alarm sounded instantly, klaxons blaring. Gwen jumped, reflexively glancing up at the speakers where the noise was coming from. Using the redhead's momentary distraction to her advantage, Gwendolyn lashed out with dozens of tendrils, wrapping them tightly around the girl and suspending her in the air to minimize her chances of escape.
"Project Reaper Audio-" The researcher attempted to repeat, and finish, the code she'd started before, but was stopped once again as Gwen let out an ear-splitting shriek.
"BEN!" She screeched, writhing madly in her bonds. "BEN!"
0000000000000000
Garen wasn't sure what happened. One moment, he'd been rambling on about nothing in particular, simply trying to get a response out of Ben. The next, he was on the floor, holding his hands over his ear-holes to try and block out a high-pitched wail, gritting his teeth in pain. The alarm klaxons sounded nearly the same instant, though Garen could hardly hear them through the piercing note. What did catch his attention, however, was the door to Ben's cell blowing out of its frame, the near feral boy bursting from the room, snarling at the guards, whom had raised their weapons. Ben tensed, ready to pounce, when the room began to shake.
The screeching faded, the klaxons grew dim, and the lights flared and burst as Sargon the Wise descended through the ceiling, eye blazing like a miniature sun, tendrils of psychic energy trailing behind him like wisps of smoke. Spikes had grown from his shoulders and his claws had lengthened to wicked blades. Garen could only watch, unmoving, as the two titans, the Phantalin and Ben, stared each other down.
The air felt supercharged, making the Head of Mertak feel like he was breathing in electricity rather than oxygen. The alarm klaxons sharply rose in volume suddenly, before fading again just as fast as sparks started igniting randomly in mid-air, all around the room. The room almost seemed to warp, without actually changing, making Garen dizzy and nauseous. As the seconds ticked by and neither Ben nor Sargon moved, the strange atmosphere only got worse, making it feel as though reality were bending in on itself.
It was a battle of a different kind, taking place on a level that Garen couldn't fully perceive, leaving him catching just the edges of the residuals of the fight. While the two were physically motionless, Ben and Sargon's battle raged just beyond perception, ripping through the space between what was and what was not. If he concentrated, opened his mind like Gwendolyn had taught him during meditation, he could almost see it.....
00000000000000
"Monster!" Sargon yelled, slashing out with his claws. "You will not find your freedom this day!" EP-713 deftly dodged to the side, Ben's body giving him incredible agility.
"If a monster are we, what does that make our makers?" The creature shot back, spinning around with his own claws extended. "And what of you, who would aid the makers of monsters?"
"Fools though they may be," The Ancient ducked under EP's attack, striking at him with an uppercut. "I gladly aid them to see the end of your evil!"
"Evil?" EP-713 leaned back from the attack, swinging up a foot at the same time and kicking the Phantalin away. "To oppose evil, to obliterate evil, that is our purpose!" EP charged after Sargon before the Phantalin could recover from the kick, raising both fists overhead and driving them into his opponent's torso. "We bring peace!" He continued the assault, ripping viciously at Sargon's outer shell. "We bring Good!" Grabbing the Phantalin's tail, he spun quickly, throwing the Ancient into the air. "It is you, those who oppose Good, that are the true evil!" He jumped up after his enemy, only for Sargon to suddenly right himself, blasting Ben's body with an orange energy, sending EP speeding straight back into the ground.
"Destroyer!" Sargon let loose another blast. "Monster! Murderer!" Another attack accompanied each shout. "You bring no Good! You only infect and corrupt! Evil is exuded from your very being, bringing ruin to even the most pure of living things! Even the children you inhabit are now nothing more than demons that must be purged!" He fired one last time, creating a cloud of smoke and driving EP-713 even deeper into the crater his impact had made.
"You speak of killing children, of purging evil." The creature in Ben's body chuckled, slowly sitting up, seeming no worse for the intense attacks. "And yet you claim we are different, that we are evil while you are good." He stood, blowing the smoke away with a wave of Ben's hand. "All that separates you from us is power and will. We have enough to stop evil, you do not." He watched, smile slowly fading, as Sargon drifted down to ground level.
"You have bound them within your own delusions." The Phantalin growled. "Through their deaths, they will be freed and this universe will be safe."
"You will not touch them." EP-713 slowly ground out, voice low, hands balled into fists.
"For the sake of the dimensions," Sargon held his arm out, claws twisting together to form a long blade. "I will end each of you my-" Before the Ancient could move, EP-713 was there, having crossed the distance between them and gripped Sargon's arm in the breadth of an instant.
"We won't," Ben's hand closed and twisted, ripping the shadowy being's arm off at the elbow. "Let you hurt," Ben's other hand shot into the Phantalin's head, passing straight through the outer shell and grabbing Sargon's bright, orange eye, ripping it out. "Our family!" 713 growled, staring into the ball of psychic energies as his enemy's body faded away. Sargon screeched loudly in his head, trying to break EP-713's hold on the boy. Fury flooded the boy's features. Slowly, the horrible truth dawned upon the Ancient.
Ben was in control.
The boy looked at the life in his hand..............
And squeezed.
0000000000000
By the time Garen came back to himself, he was alone and the room was empty, the air no longer charged. As he shakily pulled himself to his feet, he could do naught but stare at the quickly dissipating smoke that had, moments before, been his most powerful ally and only hope of stopping the end of all existence.
00000000000000
In the dark of the cell, three eyes flew open, shining brightly.
Arise, my child.
"Who's there?" Anger, clenched fists, the chains rattle as thick limbs pull them tight.
We are here. I am within you.
"The only one in me, is me!" A snarl. "So just show yourself already, freakshow!" The crackle of flames, their glow quickly dying. "Agh, stupid alien chains!" The chains rattle, holding strong.
Feel my power. Know we are one.
"If you don't –" A gasp. "W- What is this?" Strength. Power. The expansion of muscle, a cry of pain. The chains rattle. "What are you doing to me?!"
We are one.
Spines jut, bones lengthen, claws sharpen, skin thickens. Acid drips, burning the floor. The cry builds to a scream. The chains rattle.
We are one. Our body is ours to shape.
The chains snap.
"….What…is this?"
My power. Your power.
A smile, revealing predator's teeth. A laugh.
"……..I'll take it."
000000000000
The air was broken. Reality crippled. And, as the creature that was not, could not be, his grandson entered the hall, striding through the blast doors like they didn't exist, Max felt his heart stop. Gwen's screeching immediately stopped and she stared at the sinister Not-Ben with wide eyes, as though unable to comprehend the being she had summoned.
His eyes were bright, with star-shaped pupils. He looked at once relaxed and excited, calm and furious. The atmosphere around him seemed to drain the energy out of the air, making the hall seem darker, more lifeless. No, that wasn't it, Max realized. In actuality, the monster before them was so full of energy that everything else simply paled in comparison.
It regarded the aged Plumber with a smile that bordered on mania, before moving its gaze to the two Gwens. The smile dropped in a heartbeat upon seeing the redhead's captive state. The tendrils holding the girl ripped themselves apart, as if by magic, while Not-Ben continued to stare. Except, the creature wasn't there anymore, it was standing underneath Max's granddaughter, arms outstretched to catch her. And it was also down the hall, still walking in. It was to his left as well, tossing Gwendolyn about like a ghostly ragdoll. And it was still in front of him, smiling insanely through his grandchild. And there was a flicker of emotion on its face as it caught Gwen; A trace of Ben reaching the surface of the creature, the only creature in sight.
"Ben…" Max remembered to start breathing again, though he hadn't noticed stopping, as Gwen stared, dumbfounded, at her cousin. The creature smiled again. "Is that…. You?"
"We're here for you, Gwen." The redhead immediately recoiled, pushing away from the boy and landing on the floor. The Not-Ben actually managed to look surprised.
"Get away from me!" Gwen continued to put distance between herself and the creature. "You aren't my cousin!" Max had to hand it to the creature when it looked hurt by the girl's words, the thing could act.
"Gwen, please." In the breadth of an instant, the air was back to normal and reality reasserted itself. The boy's eyes were his once more and his voice his own. "It's me."
"No!" The girl insisted, hitting the wall and standing up without taking her eyes off of what was outwardly Ben. "She told me, she knew about you!" What Max was sure was false confusion filled 'Ben's features.
"I…. I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Gwen." It implored. "I don't know who 'she' is, or what she told you, but I do know we need to get out of here." It stretched out a hand to the girl. She looked torn. It was obvious to Max that she couldn't see the falseness behind the thing's words.
"It……. It's really you?" She stared at the hand, moving her own tentatively towards it.
" Wouldn't be here if it wasn't." The creature smiled wistfully. "When I heard all the shrieking, I thought it was hero time; Go figure it was just you, yapping away as usual." Gwen let out a cross between a laugh and a sob at this, placing her hand in his and pulling him into a tight hug.
"You brat." She muttered into his neck.
"NO!" Max finally found himself, regaining his voice. "Gwen, get away from him!" He waved his good arm, rushing towards the pair. A sour look crossed the monster's face.
"You stay back!" It growled, pushing Gwen behind itself and baring its teeth at Max.
"Ben, wait!" The girl grabbed onto the thing's shoulder. "Grandpa's not with them, he's on our side."
"What?" The creature turned its head to look at her. "Don't you remember what we heard when-"
"We heard wrong!" Gwen interrupted. "He doesn't know anything about what they're planning, they're just using him!" The creature looked back and forth between Gwen and Max, looking so much like Ben, the real Ben, that it gave the elderly man pause.
"What makes you so sure?" It asked after a beat, eyes full of doubt.
"Ben, do you trust me?" The creature, or Ben, Max couldn't tell which it was now, seemed torn. Then, it looked at him, straightening its posture.
"….. Come on, we gotta go, Max."
0000000000000
The ground went 'clunk'. This gave Arlune pause, and rightly so, as dirt and grass are not known for going 'clunk'. She frowned behind her mask, slowing her immense speed and listening carefully to the sound of her steps. Just the usual 'kish, kish' sound that slightly wet ground was wont to make when she stepped across it. No 'clunk'.
But she had heard it, of that the Repromag was certain. So, with a touch of curiosity and a heaping piledriver of paranoia (living on the same ship as the insane will do that), Arlune carefully set aside the wood she had been gathering and retraced her super-speed steps at a more careful pace.
Kish, kish.
Nothing yet.
Kish kish.
Hmmm, still nothing?
Kishkish.
Where was the darned thing?
Kishkishkishkishkishkish.
Ok, seriously, where was whatever had made that-
Clunk.
Aha! Arlune smiled widely, showing off her impressively pointy teeth to the inside of her mask, and did a short, awkward dance of victory. Then, blushing at her own childish actions, she stooped down to better see this odd, 'clunk'-making ground. It looked normal enough.
Arlune poked it.
Clunk.
Whatever was 'clunk'-ing was right below the grass. Arlune dug her claws underneath the dirt and pulled, earning herself a surprisingly sizeable swath of grass and dirt. Right below it, as she had suspected, was the source of the 'clunk': A thick, metal hatch.
What wonders might await inside? Arlune thought to herself as she set about prying it open with her powerfully augmented muscles. Could it be candy? Or treasure? Perhaps it was a hidey-hole with a bed and some grown-up reading material? Probably not that last one, the Mercenary admitted with a sigh, but a magical land with ponies and well oiled servant-boys would be just as welcome.
"Well, hey there!" Or it could be Kaizon. Crazy, crazy Kaizon. "I was wondering when you'd find your way down here." Arlune felt a little sad inside, but hopped down into the passageway. She did her best to mask her disappointment with what she felt was witticism.
"Of course there's a secret underground complex on this rock; it makes perfect sense." It made no sense. Nothing ever made sense with the dogmatic Miskin. "I mean, where else would you store your extensive collection of…….um, yeah." Arlune blushed again, thankful her mask hid her face. She always talked too much when Kaizon was around and said stupid, half-finished things as a result, her mouth making better time than her mind.
"……Riiiiiggghhtt." He said at length, looking at her in and odd way that made her nervous. "Let's, uh, just get going." He gave her another, shorter stare, before turning and leading the way down the tunnel. There were no lights, so Arlune was forced to stay close and watch the glowy bits of Kaizon's mostly-metal body to navigate. Huh, she hadn't even known he had a light right above the base of his tail. Kaizon suddenly began moving faster, forcing her to stop staring at his hinder. A few moments later, they had reached a small room.
It was about twenty feet by twenty feet by twenty feet by twenty feet by twenty feet by- Arlune shook her head. It was twenty foot on all sides. In the center of the room was a pedestal with a small gun lying on it, a cable running from the base of the gun connecting it to the pedestal. As she stepped into the room, the passage sealed closed behind her.
"This is……." She searched for the right word. "Lackluster." Kaizon laughed.
"Things are often more complex than they appear." He advised. "You'd do well to remember that." Kaizon was pretty smart with the wiseman sayings. Smart was shmexy. He gave her that weird look again.
"I got something on my mask?" She guessed, bringing up a hand to wipe whatever it was away.
"You happen to eat any purple fruit while you were up top?" Arlune gasped.
"How did you know?" Was he a wizard?!?
"That would explain why you've become a mentally-challenged teenager." Kaizon rolled his eyes. "And why you've taken to narrating everything." Narrating? "Yes. Also, I'm not a wizard." Arlune's eyes widened. He was a wizard!
"Do a magic trick!" She demanded. Kaizon sighed.
"Sure, why not." He pressed a button on the pedestal. The walls all disappeared, making Arlune gasp in amazement. She could see the sky. Even the floor and ceiling were gone, leaving Kaizon and herself floating among the stars. Arlune giggled. She was alone with a boy! Kaizon just shook his head.
"Look, sober or not, you've got a test to complete." He said, tossing her the gun on the cable. Arlune opened her mouth to ask what it was for when ships suddenly appeared all around them.
000000000000000
"Orders, Boss?" Klecks looked away from the planetoid on the view screen, cracking a set of his knuckles loudly. "You want we should land en masse and storm the place?"
"Not quite yet." Daverik shook his head. "Knowing Miskin, there's some kind of trap waiting for us." He folded his arms, thinking. "I doubt he just crashed here by pure chance, as well. Most likely, he has another ship waiting here to escape with." The Combronite looked up. "Have the fleet surround the planetoid in a spherical blockade; we can't let him escape again."
The order was carried out swiftly, the bulk of the fleet surrounding the planetoid on all sides.
"Alright, now we-"
Daverik was cut off as a massive beam of energy tore his ship in two.
000000000
There we go. Till next time.