Danny POV

I managed to lose the security guard by running into the girl's bathroom and changing my mask into another girl. I walked out and the security guard was asking for a female coworker to search the bathroom. I quickly walked away and started to walk to the hunting section of the mall.

"Breaking news, it seems after 3 years, Bellwood has finally seen a reappearance of Ben 10. However, our young hero has drastically changed. In this video, you can see that he now wears almost all black, part of his hair is now white and he now has a scar on his left cheek. Whereas the Ben 10 we loved always had a smile on his face, he has returned to have a face of rage."

I stopped in my tracks and looked into the electronics store I was next to. On all of the TV, there was different news channel all talking about the same topic. Ben. I walked into the store and stood in front of the closest TV. In the background, there was a video of the three of us and the man in the suit. There were two news anchors both discussing the topic.

"Well I don't know about you Darren, but it looks like Ben 10 has been from hell and back."

"I agree with you Havoc, it is obvious that in the three years, Ben 10 has become a different person. You can see here that these 2 young ladies are holding Ben 10 back from Will Harangue. Now if it is not known, Will Harangue is infamous for trying to prove that Ben 10 was unfit to be a hero. However, we have never seen Ben 10 this agitated."

In the background, you can see me and Rex hoist Ben onto Rex's shoulders. My face paled when I saw Ben's back. In our hurry, we didn't notice that Ben's shirt had ridden upon him. As soon as Ben was on Rex's shoulders, we could see the multitude of scars that littered his back. All of the scars were dark compared to his skin.

"Oh my God, did you see his back, Darren?"

"What are you talking about?"

The TV reporter pointed at someone off-screen.

"Riza, rewind the video to the part where Ben 10 is on top of that girl's shoulder and pause when she turns around to get away. Keep on Going...Stop! Right there, look at his back."

"Lord Almighty, Riza zoom in on his back."

The video zoomed in on Ben's back and the image was enhanced. Now it was easy to see all the scars that were on his back. You can even see the scars the stitches made. The employees that were watching on their phones were silent. The news anchors were silent.

"My fellow viewers, it appears...it appears as if Ben 10 has truly been to hell and back. Darren what-what do you have to say about this?"

"I have nothing to say, Havoc, nothing to but what even Ben 10 has been through to cause those scars, is something that no human should have to endure. Does anyone know what he says in the video?"

"The recording that was sent in is too far away to understand what he was saying. Wait, hang on."

The man known as Darren held up a hand to his ear.

"We have just received an audio clip that was sent in, the sender had managed to isolate what he was saying, play it now, please. We have to warn that this audio clip is not for children to hear"

On the background, the video changed to an audio clip with
wavelengths. I felt my face pale further when it started to play.

"LET ME THE FUCK GO, HES THE REASON WHY I'M COVERED WITH SCARS. HES THE REASON WHY I WAS LOCKED UP IN A CELL AND EXPERIMENTED ON LIKE A FUCKING LAB RAT. LET ME GO!"

The two news anchors had a look of horror on their face, when I looked around, all the viewers around me mimic their expression.

"Holy shi-"

Immediately, the streaming cut off and it went to commercial. I started to hear mumbling around me as people started to discuss what was on the news. This isn't good. I quickly walked out of the store and headed to the department store in the construction boots section.

I quickly grabbed 3 pairs of black steel toe boots. Then I walked over to the men's section to get some more clothes. I grabbed 3 pairs of black and navy blue compression shirts, cargo pants. I grabbed coats, socks and anything that would help us. I walked over to the camping section and grabbed almost everything.

Camping bags, steel and flint bars, compasses, 360 cord, canteens, pocket knives, first aid kits, tampons (they are actually useful for a lot of stuff), solar watches

I walked over to the checkout and quickly paid. The cashier took no notice of me as he was still fixated on the news, waiting for it to return. I took it back to Ben's car, taking notice that they were not still there. I grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scribbled down a note for them to wait for me until I got back.

I walked back into the mall, this time going to see if there were any hunting stores. Surprisingly, there was one. I walked in and started to pick our arsenal. Crossbows, bow, and arrows, hunting knives, daggers, whetstones, polishing oil. When I walked over to the gun counter, I picked out 1 pistol and a couple of boxes of ammo. As the man was taking out the gun, I placed everything on the counter for him to scan. I looked around the store, making sure I didn't miss anything. I stopped when a display case caught my eye.

In the case, there were 3 beautiful weapons. There were a katana, a broadsword, and a spear. Their hilts were wonderfully made, the sheaths were made out of a mixture of metal and wood with a flower engraving on each of them. Signifying that they were made together from the same person. The label said that they were all made out of steel and the swords had their steel folded multiple times. I heard the cashier come up from behind me.

"A beauty aren't they?"

"They sure are, are they for sale?"

"Yeah, they are, about 1000 dollars for the whole set."

"Why so cheap?"

"We have been trying to sell them for years, at this point, we just want to get rid of them."

"I'll take them."

"Great, I'll ring them up."

The man quickly took them out and packaged them along with everything else. I ended up using the rest of the money. I walked out of the store and although I had a bit of a hard time, I carried everything back to the car. Thankfully, it is still early in the morning and there still aren't that many people there. When I got back to the car, there was a couple waiting there for me. I stopped when I noticed them and tensed up.

The girl walked forward while scratching her head.

"Calm down Danny, it's me and Rex."

I relaxed and tensed up again when I remembered what I did to him. Ben noticed this.

"Calm down Igris, I'll get you back later for the punch."

"Aw shit."

Ben came up and grabbed some of the stuff I was carrying, he raised an eyebrow when he saw the 3 long boxes.

"I'll show you later."

He nodded his head and helped me put everything into the trunk and make it fit. When we were done, we got into the car and drove out of the parking lot. We all stayed silent, preparing for the hectic situations that are going to come soon.