Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome back to another (late night) update of Ben 10: Origins. I'm loving all of the hype! We're getting close to the climax of Ben's story. If you've been tagging along since the beginning of the story, thank you so much! If you've been tagging along since Jake Long, you're a real one. And of course, even if you just discovered me and my little project, I just want to say thank you so much for tuning in. I love being able to share these crazy stories with y'all! Be sure to let me know how long you've been reading!
Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 08
As the monster pulled itself up from the smaller crater it had made upon impact, rubble falling off of it's hulking exoskeleton, it shook its head, and tried to get it's bearings. It spotted the two kids, and, seeming to recognize them, started to scuttle towards them, its one, huge claw reaching out to grab at Ben. As he did, however, there was a whizzing sound, and then with three separate impacts, three glowing, discs of energy had embedded themselves halfway into the bronze claw. There a beat, and then the projectile blew up, sending the crab monster reeling, though relatively unscathed it seemed. The source of the discs was soon apparent, as, from a nearby rooftop, a man in hi-tech red armor came leaping down, landing between the monster and the kids. He wore a haunting mask that bore the visage of some kind of demon.
He didn't look like he was there to protect them.
"Ben!" Kevin said, bolting off down the road and calling back to his friend. Ben turned, a second later, and then took off in a sprint after him. The two, strange combatants seemed to be focused on each other, but unbeknownst to the kids, both took note of which direction they were running.
As they were running back towards the motel, a pair of figures came dashing out from an alleyway ahead of them. The men were clad in similar armor to the man in red, but theirs was more uniform, with a chrome-and-black aesthetic. At their sides they seemed to carry ornate swords. They wore strange masks as well, and they carried heavy guns. They seemed to be running from something. Then, there were two distinct phew-phew noises, and twin bolts of purple energy came flying out of the alleyway, connecting with the square of the first man's back, and the back of the second man's knee. Both went down on the pavement, guns clattering away from their grip.
Grinding to a halt, Kevin swooped down and scooped up one of the huge guns, grunting at the weight, and turned to Ben.
"Can you shoot a gun?"
"What?" Ben asked.
"Your thingie's on cooldown, right? It looks like the government or whoever is finally coming after me. Or maybe it's you. Either way, you have to defend yourself," Kevin said, holding the heavy, black weapon out to Ben, who took it, reluctantly, and glanced down at his hands. The gun-metal was heavy. He didn't like how it felt.
"How quaint," a voice from the alley said. "Do you know how to operate that, chimpling shapechanger?"
The two spun to look at the approaching figure, the third to present himself from the alleyway. He was muscle-bound and dangerous looking, wearing purple armor that seemed cobbled together from various different styles. He held out two, sleek pistols, that were clearly hi-tech and alien, and the extra pair of arms that were mounted on his shoulders held a matching pair. All four were trained on Ben.
"Look's like its you," Kevin muttered, clutching his flaming fist. The masked figure before them turned his unsettling, eyeless gaze on the dark-haired boy, who winced under the inspection.
"And this? What are you, part pyronite?" The being said, gesturing slightly with one of his many guns, training it on Kevin in the process.
There was a sudden sound of battle cries and rushing boots, and several rounds of laser fire. Yet another gun was turned and trained down the alley, leaving only two on Ben. They couldn't see down the shadowy alleyway, but moments later, the sounds of combat ceased all too quickly, as one side's cries died out. Then, a single pair of bootsteps echoed down the alleyway, and a shapely, dangerous looking person in black and grey armor appeared, brandishing a pistol and what looked like one of the swords worn by the armored men. To the kids' surprise, this newcomer walked over casually to stand beside the purple one.
"They're a human organization," the purple warrior said as they approached. They hummed, and looked over the two kids, who were standing, trembling with anger, in the middle of the street of this small city.
"I know," the person (apparently female) who had just arrived said. "What, you thought they were legitimate Akiridions? That armor is makeshift at best. Shoddy at worst."
"Akiridion? I was positive those were Galra shoulder-pads," the purple warrior said curiously.
"It's a bit of both, actually," came a new voice. Kevin glanced over his shoulder and groaned. Ben, who was holding the gun towards the menacing pair in some desperate attempt to keep them at bay, looked over to him.
"Aw, come on."
"What?"
"More silver guys," Kevin muttered, as an entire squadron (nearly a dozen) of men in chrome armor arrived. They were lead by the man in crimson armor from before, and between them they carried a massive, tied-up prisoner: the bronze crab from before. They trains their weapons on the two armored people. At a gesture from the red warrior, his soldiers dropped the alien unceremoniously. The resulting crash made Ben jump a bit, his nerves were so on end.
He swore he heard a mirthful chuckle coming from the purple warrior's helmet.
"The artifact is ours," the voice of the red warrior said, folding his arms and placing a boot on the back the bronze crab. "Leave it to us, and we will return your comrade."
It didn't seem to phase the other two.
"What, Kraab?" The grey-ish black warrior said, with a shrug. "Go ahead."
"You'd be doing me a favor, actually," the one in purple said.
"Hey!" The crab, apparently named Kraab, said from the ground. A stiff foot silenced him.
"Don't be foolish," the red armored man continued from behind his demonic mask, "our Organization has no trifle with bounty hunters. You would be wise not to gain the ire of my master."
"What makes you so confident that you want our… ire?" The armored woman said, hesitating on the final word. "I'll have you know we are rather well known for our skills. Particularly SixSix here. Do you want to know how he got his name?"
"She's stalling," a random, masked foot soldier said. The red warrior shook his head.
"I have no time for-" He began to say.
"We were stuck on this planet, once. I know, hard to believe, but it's true. While we were, ol' SixSix here? Well. He killed 66 of the planet's most elite soldiers. Armed, like you, with tech that didn't belong to them. By himself."
An uncomfortable stir rippled through the group of soldiers as she spoke. Their leader didn't budge, however. In fact, there was a quiet, low, chuckle that seemed to start from behind his mask, and slowly grow louder and louder, until his shoulders were shaking. Then, abruptly, the laughter cut off, and he drew a crackling, vibrating sword of yellow energy.
"Even if I believed your story," the commander said, "nothing would change. I do not fear you. My offer stands but a moment longer. You will turn the artifact over to us, or you will feel the complete and utter wrath of the Forever Kni-"
Bee-Bee-Bee-BEEP-BEEP! Bee-Bee-Bee-BEEP-BEEP! Be-be, be-be, be-be, bee!
The sound of a novelty car horn suddenly cut him off mid-sentence. From behind the bounty hunters, a pair of headlights suddenly flashed on, and the roaring engine of a mobile home was suddenly tearing down the road towards them. Though the lights were blinding, and Ben couldn't see the vehicle, he recognized the sound of the horn.
The two free bounty hunters jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the rampaging front of the large vehicle. Milliseconds behind them, Kevin and Ben dove to opposite sides, also just getting out of the way. Unfortunately for the bulk of the armored soldiers, they were not so quick. There was a heavy, metal, slamming sound, and several muffled cries of pain, as they were suddenly hit with several tons of moving metal.
As Ben picked himself up on the ground, he blinked to readjust to the darkness, and saw the four-armed, purple clad warrior doing the same. As they took note of each other, the bounty hunter wasted no time, drawing a pair of short, wicked blades with his extra arms.
"Tetrax doesn't want to kill you. I don't care. I wonder how long it will take you to bleed out when I take your hand, and the shapechanger with it."
BLAM! BLAM!
Two loud, ballistic shots rang out in the air. The warrior stopped, shouting in pain, and sparks began to fly off of his shoulders. This was because, Ben realized, something had blasted the second pair of arms off. They must have been mechanical, because they left sparking wires where they had been. Spinning around in confusion, Ben took note of the side of the R.V. Where there had once been a hanging kayak, there was now a large, side-mounted gun of some kind, it's barrel smoking. While bewhildered, Ben shook his head, finding his feet and scrambling away from the temporarily disabled bounty hunter.
"Ben!"
Grandpa Max. He had stuck his head and arm out of the window of the R.V, and was waving at him.
"Get in!"
"Wait!" Ben said. The armored men were recovering, and while the red-clad leader was nowhere to be seen, the hulking, armored crab creature was pulling itself up to newfound freedom. While it might have been assigned to the same mission as its comrades, it seemed to have abandoned any thought of that. It's eyes, reflective, red, and slightly emanating in the night, honed in on the now scattering soldiers.
"Now you done it, you bunch of human A-holes!" Came the crab's tinny voice. Though, to Ben, it sounded like monstrous chittering. It pointed it's huge claw at one of the chrome warriors, and there was a huge, discharging noise as a bolt of yellowish-orange energy came flying out, colliding with and melting the flashy armor the man wore, and sending him crumpling to the asphalt. A few of the downed man's brothers-in-arms turned to see him go down, and began to return fire. A running shoot-out began as the bronze alien scuttled after them.
Ben glanced down at his wrist. The hourglass was still red. Crap. Dashing past the front of the R.V., he went to try and find Kevin, hoping that the other bounty hunter had not gone after him. As he rounded the large cab of the mobile home, the door flung open, and he was met with Max's stern glare.
"Get. IN. We're going!"
Ben ignored him.
"Kevin!" He called out, spotting the boy nearby on the ground.
Ben dashed to his friend, helping him up, just as the female bounty hunter started making her way towards them. She had her gun drawn, the helmet honed in on the two of them, but the way she held herself was far less saturated with deadly intent then her purple companion. As she walked forward, Kevin tried to push himself in front of Ben. The brown-haired boy resisted.
"What are you doing?" He said.
"Move," Kevin said curtly, shoving Ben aside.
Then, his hand (that one that had taken on the molten appearance) began to glow, emanating heat and creating a low, roaring noise. Ben's eyes widened, and the bounty hunter seemed to pause. That brief moment was all that Kevin needed. Shoving his hand forward, he gave a grunt of exertion, and shot a beam of fire at the ground between the two boys and their would-be captor, scorching a line between them that held her off.
"Woah," Ben said. "That's Heatblast! You absorbed my power!"
Kevin turned his wrist once or twice, looking down at this blazing hand of his. The reflection of the fire burnt in his eyes, and slowly, a wicked smile crept across his pallid face.
"Yeah…" he said.
"Don't make it difficult, kid," the bounty hunter suddenly said from behind the crackling barrier. "I only want the device. You don't have to get hurt."
Kevin turned to look at her, the smile disappearing. He hated being called kid, and more than that, he hated being told to mind his own business when it was clearly his business. Gaining some machismo with his newfound ability, Kevin shrugged his other shoulder, and both arms began to burn with molten fire up to the bicep. The dark haired boy shook his head.
"Nah," he said. "You mess with him, you mess with me."
"Ben!"
"Go," Kevin said over his shoulder as Max called once again from the cab of the R.V. Several more heavy calliber gunshots were fired from the weapon mounted on the old machine, and the firefight between Kraab and the soldiers was growing distant as it wound its way through the alleys. "I'll cover you."
"What? No, come with!" Ben said.
Kevin laughed a little, and as the bounty hunter in grey stepped forward, swiping away the fire with some kind of energy baton, he threw down another line, this one closer, which forced her to throw up her arms and take a few paces back..
"No way, man," the dark haired boy said.
Ben looked shocked. Then, he shook his head, taking on a more annoyed look.
"Whatever. Then, I'll stay, too."
"Get over yourself, Ben," Kevin said, still facing down the bounty hunter. "Look, you and your gramps'll only get in the way. You still can't transform again yet, remember?"
Ben glanced down at the watch, and groaned internally. It was still red! Then, he looked to the old R.V., and then finally, to Kevin.
"What about you?"
Kevin looked back over his shoulder, and that wicked grin had returned. As Ben watched, his shoulders, right where the flames ended, started to change, growing heavier, and thick with some kind of wild orange fur. His smiling teeth began to elongate and formed fangs.
"I don't have that problem."
As the bounty hunter bravely charged through the flames once more, she was met with the pouncing, deadly, two ton form of a juvenile vulpimancer, with flaming claws, flaring gills, and no eyes to speak of. It was a beast she was quite familiar with, though she had never seen one with claws that burned like a pyronite. The shock of the attack gave Kevin, in his new form, enough time to take her to the ground, and begin gnawing on her thick, nigh-impenetrable armor. He wouldn't find flesh that way, but his sheer weight was enough to keep her down for a few crucial moments.
Ben, who had just witnessed his friend transforming partway into Wildmutt, a huge, orange beast that he had only temporarily taken the helm of. He hardly remembered his time as Wildmutt, it was a rush of sensations, but he knew one thing. Gwen and Max had warned him never to use that transformation again.
Now Ben saw why.
As he watched the monster that was Kevin tear into the bounty hunter, Ben heard the signature chime that meant the watch was back online.
However, before he could do anything, he was suddenly snatched up from behind! The boy struggled, but whoever had picked him up had burly, powerful arms, and fight them as he did, he couldn't break free with his underdeveloped muscles. Panicking, Ben tried to reach his hand over to his wrist, but found his arms pinned to his sides. In one last, desperate attempt, Ben leaned down and took a huge chomp on his captor's arm. To his surprise, he heard a familiar, human, grunt of pain.
"Ouch- Quit it!" Max said, as he hauled his grandson into the R.V., "We have to go! No more arguing."
"But-"
"I mean it!" Max said. There was suddenly a powerful, commanding presence to his voice that made even Ben question defiance. As he was placed in the aisle of the R.V. and the door closed behind him, the boy looked to his grandfather, who bore a dead-set, determined expression.
He decided that he would listen.
He found a seat next to a terrified looking Gwen, and the two of them pressed tightly together in the seat. Neither of them made eye contact, but they slipped their hands into each other's. They were, after all, scared children surrounded by things they didn't understand. As Max hit the gas, and they peeled down the road, Ben caught a glimpse of Kevin. The grey-armored bounty hunter was nowhere to be seen, and he was now being brought down under the weight of the chrome armored soldiers, who had reappeared, apparently after losing the crab monster.
The last thing Ben saw of Kevin was when the commander in red drew his sword.