Chapter 120: Comatose: Part Eight

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

I Don't Own The Rights To Nathan Black Or Any Associated Characters, The Rights Go To annihalator2015

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter One Hundred and Twenty.

* I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Anyway, let's get right into it.

Earth-Prime

Late May, 2018

Ben's House

Ben

I let out a hiss of annoyance as I sat at the desk in my room.

How did I forget to avoid contact with him? Is it that past pushing back again?

"Is there any way that you can stop all of the trouble he'll cause?" Gwen asked from her spot on my bed.

I turned to look at her.

"Yeah, if I can find him before he does anything."

"Well, shouldn't you start looking?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. I suppose I should."

I got up from my bed and left my room. Since everyone had left, I had allowed Albedo to return home. I walked into the living room to talk to him.

"Did you do what I asked?" I replied.

He rolled his eyes, got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. He eventually came back with a fat file, full of papers.

"Here you go." He said as he handed it to me.

"How'd you get all of this that quickly?"

He snickered.

"I have my ways."

I ignored him as I opened the file. It was all there. All of the info on Leon Jones, the rumored body count that he had built, everything.

"Leon Jones, paranoid ex-marine driven crazy after he had to put his family down, who had been mutated by Doctor Aloysius Animo. Ever since then, he's been putting down common thugs and terrorists alike."

"Doctor who?"

"Nothing, just forget it. Anyway, Albedo? Thanks for getting this for me. I really appreciate it."

He got up from the couch.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever."

He walked through the kitchen and towards the basement stairs. Once he was gone, I let out a sigh of annoyance.

"Typical. Ever after all I've done for him, his manners are still terrible. If I remembered correctly, Albedo would soon come to hate being the third wheel in our group. And there's only one person that I know of who could change that."

I cursed in frustration as I realized it.

I had been selfish to have those thoughts. As much as I hated the idea, I had to allow Sunny to exist.

I facepalmed as I hissed with anger and annoyance.

"Oh, no." I groaned.

The Next Morning

When I awoke the next morning, I found that Gwen was gone. I let out a yawn as I got up from my bed. I looked to my nightstand to see a note lying there. I picked it up and saw that it was from Gwen.

Ben,

I went out for lunch with some old friends from St. Agnes. Be back later.

Love,

Gwen

"Alright, so Gwen went out. That gives me time to look for Kevin!"

Later That Day

Downtown Bellwood

"Oh come on, Benji! You really can't tell when your best friend is right in front of you?"

Turns out Kevin was robbing a bank using my powers, again. And I had played dumb at first, pretending not to know who he was. He began to let out several pained groans, as I watched his face morph from Four Arms' face, to Ripjaws' face, to Diamondhead's face and finally to his human face. It was Kevin.

"Kevin." I said with anger.

"Bingo! Yahtzee!" Kevin exclaimed, laughing. "Will someone get this guy a prize?!"

I decided to continue playing dumb, for reasons I didn't understand.

"But how did you do it? How could you possibly transform into one of my alien forms?"

"Um, because I'm an energy sponge?"

"A what now?"

"Um, I absorb energy? So when I shook hands with you, whatever sort of energy allows you to transform, I absorbed it!"

"Oh, right. Duh."

He just chuckled.

"It just so happens that I know all of your secrets, old friend."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?"

"Your desire to protect the one you love the most."

I rolled my eyes, all four of them.

"Uh, that's not just my desire. That's everyone's desire."

"Okay, I suppose you need a refresher. Do you remember how it felt to kiss your cousin Gwen a couple days ago?"

"Just get to the point, Kevin!"

"Fine. You and I are going to play a game. And if you want to win, then you need to play by the rules."

"I'm listening."

"Good. Rule one, do what I say. Rule two, do not fail, or there will discipline. Strict discipline. Now, go home."

"Go home, huh? Is it really that simple?"

He nodded without a word.

"Okay, if you say so."

I turned away from him without saying another word.

Ten Minutes Later

Ben's House

Once I got back, the Omnitrix timed out. I walked up to the door and as I expected, saw a note attached to it. I tore it off and began to read it.

Benji,

Ready to play? I hope you remember the rules I told you about. All four of those people that were in your house yesterday have been taken by yours truly. But here's the question: Can you save all four of them before time runs out? Your two best friends are at the abandoned water park, fastened to the top of a water slide with that annoying little sting wing's goop. The goop dissolves in thirty minutes. And if that happens, your friends will, well, let's just say the best case scenarios for the both of them are broken legs. As for Gwen and her brother, they are with me, at the top of the tallest building in Downtown Bellwood. Your little girlfriend has one hour, or she'll be nothing but a bloody stain on the sidewalk below. Same goes for her brother. Prove to me that you can save them at least three of them and you're off the hook.

Best Regards,

K.

I tore up the note into shreds and dropped them onto the stoop.

He's playing this Jigsaw game again! Okay, save J.T. and Cash first, and then I'll get Ken and Gwen.

I put my hand on my face as I let out an annoyed sigh.

Why, oh why couldn't I remember to avoid contact?

Forty Minutes Later

Downtown Bellwood

I landed on the satellite pole on the top of the news tower, just a few feet away from Kevin, who was in Four Arms form once again.

Okay, here I am. And I'm ready to relive one of the tensest moments of my superhero career!

He was holding both Ken and Gwen off of the roof of the building, so they were out in mid-air.

"Good, you made it!" Kevin exclaimed. "Let's talk!"

I knew I couldn't talk him out of this, so I just listened.

"You see, every hero has to make a choice in their life."

He scratched his chin with one of his free hands, before he spoke again.

"Like for example, Spider-Man had to choose between a married life with Mary Jane Watson or a thrilling life with the Black Cat."

"Um, that's a very random example, but okay."

"Shut up."

He dropped Gwen and then quickly caught her by the wrist. I didn't talk again after that.

"I gave you a choice. The choice was you let me in on the action, or I make you say goodbye to your friends. And what did you say?"

"I told you to forget about it."

"Right. And since that didn't work, I've come up with a new choice for you."

He lifted Gwen a bit higher up.

"I can kill the woman you love, right here and right now."

He lifted Ken a bit next.

"Or, she can lose her big brother who's just about to go off to college."

"How did you know that…" Ken began to speak, but Kevin beat him to it.

"Hey, shut up!" Kevin said, as he bopped Ken on the top of his head.

He turned back to look at me.

"So? What'll it be?"

I knew where this was going, so I didn't say anything.

"We all have to make choices in life! Now, choose!"

He then dropped them both and they both screamed as they fell. I didn't waste anytime in saying something. I jumped off of the roof and dived toward Gwen while I was still in my Diamondhead form.

I'm not going be able to catch Ken, too! He's too far from me!

I got close enough to Gwen and hugged her to my chest. I looked back at Ken.

We don't have very long until we reach the ground and I can't catch him. But maybe I can create a slide-like structure for him to reach the ground with!

I tried to fire diamond shards to create something like that, but I only fired three, one of which cut Ken's arm.

Okay, let's not try that again. But, I still can't do anything for him!

Good thing I didn't have to. Just then, another Fourarms came out of nowhere and caught Ken. A black and white Fourarms. Albedo. Seeing that Ken was out of harms way, I returned my attention to the fact that we had seconds before we reached the ground.

I have to make sure that I take the brunt of the fall!

I began to rotate myself as we fell through the air, that I was the one who'd hit the ground first. And I did. Seconds later, I smashed back-first into the ground. I heard Gwen let out a groan as we landed, so I knew that she was (mostly) unharmed. After a few seconds, I got up from the ground, still cradling Gwen against my chest. I gently let go of her and she stepped away from me, holding her side as she looked up at me.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She nodded.

"I will be. Thank you."

I turned to see Albedo holding Ken as they landed, who looked more dazed than Gwen did. He put Ken down and he began to shake his head. I walked over to Albedo.

"It's awfully convenient for you to be here." I replied.

"I could say the same." He said. "You and I need to have a talk, bro."

I looked up at the News Building that we had been on top of. Kevin was leaping across to the next rooftop.

"Later. I have a freak to catch."

I took off running without saying anything else.

"I'm coming with you!" Albedo called to me.

"No, you're not! Take Gwen home!"

Ten Minutes Later

After I left Albedo, Gwen and Ken, I followed Kevin to the old tenement building that he briefly stayed in. By the time that I had gotten there, the Omnitrix had timed out and I was human again. I kicked through the old wooden boards that blocked the entrance without a care in the world and walked in.

"Kevin, I know you're here!"

He didn't respond.

"So, what do you want now? To kill me?"

"No, but of course you would think that."

"What you did back there wasn't cool. You can't do that stuff like that, Kevin."

"Why not?"

"Because, Kevin! With great power comes great…"

"Don't feed me that comic book super hero bullshit! You and I are not the same, Tennyson! You want to be a hero, you want to help people. I, on the other hand, want to use my power to benefit myself!"

This isn't normal. This isn't how I remember this talk going!

"Alright, Kevin. Just relax, dude. I'm coming up there."

He didn't respond. Instead, I heard a series of grunts of pain, followed by a roar of anger.

Great, he's mutated again.

"Okay, Kevin. I'll be right there."

I began to run up flight after flight of stairs, until I got up to the sixth floor. I walked around in the dark looking for Kevin, until a shadow caught my eye.

"Oh, Kevin. Thank God, I was beginning to…"

I stopped dead in my tracks once he came into sight, thanks to a stream of light coming from a window that hadn't been boarded up. He was hideous! I mean, he did mutate before, but this was completely different. It was like he was some kind of hybrid version of Fourarms and a human.

He still had his human head, but it half of his face was the face of Fourarms. He had four arms, but only one of them was an actual alien arm. One of his arms was human, and the other two were red and scrawny. As for his body, he had human skin, about until down to his abdomen, where it was as if his skin had meshed with Fourarms' skin. He looked like something out of Frankenstein's Monster!

"Would you look at what you've done to me?! I'm an abomination! I need more of that thing's energy!"

I shook my head.

"Kevin, just calm down. I think I can help you. I know some people who could…"

"Shut the fuck up! You don't know shit! All I need is more of that thing's energy!"

I began to back away from him as I put up my hands.

"More energy won't help and it won't change you back! Now, if you would just listen…"

He let out a roar and charged at me without letting me finish. I tried to get out of the way, but I was too late. He grabbed the Omnitrix and began attempting to pry it off of me.

"Give me the damn thing!"

"Kevin, stop! You don't know what you're doing!"

He didn't say anything else. As he continued to pull on the Omnitrix, it began to spark green electricity. I tried to pull away from his grip, but he was too strong. As he continued to pull, a green sphere began to grow around the Omnitrix.

"Kevin, seriously! You need to stop! Something bad is about to happen!"

He didn't say anything; he just pulled harder. And as he continued, it happened. The sphere exploded and both of us were blown backwards. I slammed into a wall and hit the ground with a groan. As I pushed myself up, I heard a something that sounded like sparking. I looked at the Omnitrix, to see that it was sparking with red electricity. My eyes widened.

"Oh, no."

I looked over at Kevin, who was standing in the shadows, hunched over.

"Kevin?"

He seemed to straighten up. I got up and took a few steps closer to him.

"Kevin?" I called out again.

He quickly rushed out of the shadows and I saw Kevin. The new Kevin. First of all, his mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth of varying sizes. His "skin" was made up of a multitude of different colors. He still had four arms, one was a Diamondhead arm, one was a Heatblast arm, one was an arm made of some slimy, green goo and the last one was just a plain old Fourarms' arm. He let out a roar as he charged at me. I had a feeling that the Kevin I knew wasn't in there anymore. But I still had to try. Just as I was about to speak, his green arm turned into a tentacle and launched itself toward me. I grabbed it out of the air before it could strike me.

"Listen to me, Kevin! You're stronger than this!"

He didn't respond with words. He let out another snarl and threw a fireball with one of his arms. I dove out of the way, as the fireball flew past me and exploded against the wall behind me. I looked back at him, as I tried to put distance between him and I.

"This isn't you, Kevin! It's the mutation!"

He responded by thrashing his tentacle at me again and shooting a couple of diamond shards my way. I dove out of the way once again. I looked back at him as he approached.

"I've mutated before, I know what it's doing to you!"

He backed me up into a corner and threw a punch in my direction. I moved out of the way, so his fist smashed into the wall.

"Let me help you, before you do something that you'll regret!"

His fist was momentarily stuck in the wall, so he took the time to attempt pulling it out. I should have known that he wouldn't be capable of being reasoned with. I ducked out of his way and began to back away from him as he continued struggling to pull his fist out of the wall. I walked over to the one window that wasn't boarded up.

"I have to get Kevin to a safe area before he hurts someone!" I whispered to myself.

Just then, Kevin pulled his fist from the wall and turned in my direction, hissing as he did. Just then, the Omnitrix turned green again. I activated it and turned into Fourarms.

"Uh-oh, got to go!"

I leaped from the window to the roof across from the old tenement building. And I started running, not daring to look back. Any second wasted was time he could take to catch up to me. I had crossed three or four rooftops when I decided to turn around. Kevin was nowhere in sight. I walked over to the edge of the roof, expecting to see him scaling the wall below. No dice. I began to look around.

"Where'd he go? No, seriously! Where'd he go?!"

Suddenly, I was hit from behind and was sent falling from the roof. I eventually slammed into a car upon reaching the ground and I heard something hit the ground next to me. I looked in that direction as I got up, to see Kevin lying on the ground, still mutated.

It was Kevin, I thought, groaning as I pushed myself up. But how did he get behind me?

I noticed Kevin began to stir, so I directed my attention to him. I stepped closer to him.

"Kevin, buddy? Are you in there?"

As I stared at Kevin, I felt something tap my shoulder. I looked over to my shoulder, to see a green tentacle floating above my shoulder. As soon as I noticed it, it quickly wrapped itself around my throat. And tightly. So tight in fact, that I was struggling to breath. Kevin quickly got up as his tentacle arm lifted me up off the ground.

How did I not notice that Kevin's tentacle was arm moving?

Kevin fired a few fireballs from his Heatblast arm, which created a fire below my feet.

He was trying to cook me alive!

He was cutting off my air; everything was slowly starting to go black. So, at this rate, he may not have to wait for me to roast. I might suffocate before he cooks me! Just as it seemed all hope was lost, Kevin was hit by a barrage of energy. He let out a shriek of pain, as his tentacle released me. I fell into the fire below, but was quick to get out of it. Kevin stood there shrieking for a few more seconds, sparking with electricity. Eventually, the barrage stopped and he fell to the ground, before changing back into his previous human-Fourarms hybrid form.

"You! Put your hands over your head and get on the fucking ground!"

I turned to look in the direction of the voice, to see multiple people in uniform, all armed to the teeth with laser weapons. They were agents of S.E.C.T. no doubt. And the guy at the helm had blonde hair and had a scar running over one of his eyes.

Director Steel. So "good" to see you again.

I backed up a little from Kevin's body.

"What are you, deaf?! Get on the fucking ground, now!"

I was about to do what he said, but I heard a familiar voice.

"Director?"

Director Steel turned to the right a little bit, looking to where Grandpa Max's voice was coming from.

"Maxwell? What are you doing here?"

Grandpa Max couldn't help me out of this. I hadn't taken the time to go talk to him about the Omnitrix and stuff. Seeing a distraction, I quickly turned and jumped up into the air.

"Hey! He's getting away!"

They began shooting at me and miraculously, I wasn't hit. I landed up on a low roof and took off running.

As much as I hate leaving Kevin there, there isn't a good way out for me!

I jumped from rooftop to rooftop for a block or two, before jumping down into the side alleys below. Just as I did that, the Omnitrix timed out. As I walked through the alley, I pulled off my mask and stuffed it into one of my jacket pockets. Next I did the same for my gloves, before zipping up my jacket.

I don't believe it. Saved by Director Steel and the boys at S.E.C.T., after I myself hardly accomplished anything! And to make matters worse, the Omnitrix is sparking red electricity again. Which means that Ghostfreak is going to escape.

I let out a sigh.

Whatever. Hopefully now I can get home without drawing unwanted attention to myself.

Sometime Later

Ben's House

After I got home, I explained to Gwen how I had failed. I had done even worse than I had before, but she still supported me. And since I had brought up her powers the other day, right now we were trying to get them to activate. We stood in the kitchen and I was trying to get her to move an empty glass.

"Just try to concentrate."

"I am!"

She said she was concentrating and yet, nothing was happening.

"Try harder."

She continued to stare at the empty glass, before looking back at me. She shook her head.

"I can't. Nothing's happening."

I nodded.

"That's okay. We'll work on that later."

I looked around and took notice of how Gwen and I were the only ones in the room.

"Hey, uh, where's Albedo? He said he wanted to talk to me."

"I think he's in your room."

"Okay, I guess I'll go talk with him now."

I left the kitchen without another word. I walked down the hall and into my room.

"Hey, Albedo. I…"

"Do you mind explaining to me what the hell this is?"

Albedo cut me off before I could finish greeting him. I turned to look at him. He was holding an open notebook.

Wait, a notebook?

My face flushed. He was holding the notebook that I had written all of my notes in.

"I'm not going to ask again. What is this?"

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter. So, what did you think of this one? I hope you all enjoyed it.

* What does everyone think of Kevin's new mutation in this chapter? Do you think Gwen will learn to use her powers? I don't think I have anything else.

* Anyway, I'm going to go though, so have a Bwen-tastic day and bye.

Review Responses

jasongd (Chapter 119): And another great chapter congrats I knew Ben would have a hard time changing the future But I still hope he'll succeed BWEN Forever

Thank you, Jason. Yes, Ben will have a hard time trying to change the future. Only time will tell if he is able to do it. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: Albedo wants in on Ben's quest to save the timeline. Gwen has doubts about her powers. Meanwhile, Ben tries to tackle the Leon Jones situation.