Ben 10: Bride To Be: Volume Two

by WebofSpideyguy7245698

In the wake of tragedy, Ben begins to favor a life without the Omnitrix. But what happens when crime begins to get worse in the city, as well as when the Forever Knights prove to be a formidable threat? Join Ben and Co. as they must rise to the occasion to fight the Forever Knights. Sequel to Volume One. Rated M for mature language, mature situations and violence.

72. Chapter 147: Castle Crashers

Chapter 147: Castle Crashers

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

Disclaimer: 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 the final chapter of Volume Two!

* I've very much been looking forward to this chapter and I hope you guys are excited to read it! Just like the last two, this might be a long one! In fact, this chapter is and probably will always be the longest chapter that I've ever written.

* One last thing I'll say is that if anyone cares enough to read the closing author's note, there's a bit there that I really want people to read.

* I won't say anything else. Anyway, let's get into it!

Earth-Prime

Tuesday, February 5th, 2019

The Tennyson House

Ben

"Come on, come on." I silently urged. "Pick up, pick up!"

Once I heard Nathan pick up, I spoke first.

Nathan

Nathan Black's House – The Country Outside of Bellwood

"Nathan, you need to listen to me! We have to plan and execute the raid earlier than we planned! Enoch's planning on exposing my identity to the press at midnight tomorrow night!"

I rubbed my eyes somewhat blearily as I yawned.

"Alright, slow down, Ben. The Hell are you talking about?"

"He just emailed me doctored footage of me beating on him without my mask and the camera has a good angle on my face. And he's going to release the footage to all of the major newspaper companies in the city tomorrow night! Bellwood isn't a small town by any means, Nathan. This thing is going to spread like wild fire if we sit back and wait! And faked footage or not, I don't think it matters. The press will believe anything if they think that they can make money off of it!"

"Gods damn it all to Hell!" I swore as I rubbed my brow. "Alright, so he's leaking the footage at midnight tonight? That gives us some time, though I would've liked some additional preparation. Okay, we'll meet up this afternoon at Cooper's warehouse, and hit the building at eight PM. That gives us five hours to get to Enoch and stop the doctored footage from going live, which should be more than enough time. For right now, you get some sleep, and let everyone else know in the morning. I need to make a call."

I explained this to Ben as I sat on my bed.

"And Ben? Try to keep a cool head, because despite the sudden time crunch, I have a plan to bust into the building and clear it out, so just keep calm and everything will work out alright, got it?"

I heard him let out a deep breathe from his end.

"I'm sorry for freaking out. It's just if this happens, it won't just be me that I have to worry about. You're right. I need to get some sleep and I'll let everyone else know in the morning. Depriving myself of sleep won't help my mental state. Thanks, Nathan."

"No problem, now you go get some sleep. I'll see you this afternoon, so keep your dean down, Tennyson." I said, before hanging up.

I then made my phone call, which was concluded a few short minutes later. I sat my phone down and sighed.

"I hate it when shit like this happens." I said before going back to sleep.

Ben

The Tennyson House

After Nathan had hung up, I backed out of my contact list and put my phone back into my pocket. I heaved a heavy sigh. I felt better, but not by much. I decided that I should listen to what Nathan said and just go get some sleep. I shut off my computer for the night and went upstairs, shutting the lights off as I went.

Once I got to the bedroom, I didn't bother putting on pajamas. I just took off my shirt and jeans and got into bed in my briefs. I laid on my side as I felt Gwen moved beside me. I felt her hand touch my back. She drew her hand back after only a few seconds and spoke in a worried tone.

"Ben? You're shaking! Are you alright?"

"No." I whispered.

"What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you about it in the morning."

A few seconds of silence passed between us.

"Okay. Do you want me to hold you in the mean time?"

When I didn't answer or move at first, she spoke again.

"Ben?"

I finally rolled over and reached out to her, putting my hands on her sides and pulling her closer to me.

"Hey, easy! Just let me…"

She gently rolled me onto my back and slowly got on top of me, before settling down. As she did this, I put my arms around her and hugged her close to me. She squirmed a bit and I hugged her tighter.

"Easy, Ben. I'm not going anywhere."

She moved up a little bit and began to gently plant kisses on my face.

"I don't know what's bugging you, but just try and relax okay, hun? I'm here."

Eventually she stopped kissing me on the face and rested her head on my chest. I continued hugging her close to me. Feeling her body heat and her fuzzy cotton shirt warm me up reassured me. It made me feel like that everything was going to be okay. And I was glad to welcome that feeling, even if it wouldn't last for very long.

The Next Morning – Wednesday, February 6th, 2019

The next morning when I woke up, I almost forgot that I was now living in a nightmare. Almost. I had to tell myself to relax. Nathan wouldn't allow that to happen. We'd break into the tower tonight and I'd half Cooper erase any trace of the faked footage from their system. It would work. It had to.

I got up that morning and got dressed before going to make myself breakfast. I was the first one at the table and was the first one to finish my breakfast. Albedo came upstairs about five minutes after I sat down, closely followed by Gwen. And Sunny came up just as I was finishing my breakfast.

I got up, washed out my bowl and put it in the dishwasher before I returned to my seat. I sat there as everyone else ate their breakfast, at various speeds. As I sat there, Gwen would occasionally glance over at me, silently asking if I was ready to talk about what was bugging me. When I wouldn't answer, she'd look away again.

"Guys." I finally spoke up after another minute or so.

Everyone looked up at me as they continued eating breakfast. I let out a sigh as I kicked one of the legs of the table.

"Enoch is going to expose my identity to the press tonight."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at my with confusion.

"Excuse me?" Sunny finally broke the silence.

I took out my phone and pulled up my emails. I found the one from Enoch last night and selected the video attachment, which had to download. I then pulled it up in my galley and sat my phone down in the middle of the table, with the volume up high, so that they could all watch it. After the video was over, we all sat in silence.

"Oh my God." Gwen spoke at last.

"Yeah, no shit." Albedo chimed in. "If we don't do anything, he's fucked."

"Not just him. The family, too." Sunny replied.

I looked up at her and she returned my glance.

"Thank you." I said as I held my hand out in front of me.

"Uh-huh."

Albedo cleared his throat.

"So, what do we do?"

"We're going to Cooper's warehouse after school today to plan the raid with Nathan and a few others that I've recruited. We're going to raid the tower tonight and take care of Enoch."

"Wait, since when?"

"Um, since I went to talk to Nathan about this on Sunday?"

"And you left us in the dark about that?"

"Left you in the dark? Wait, why are you even doing this?! I told Gwen and…"

"And I told you and Sunny." Gwen finished my sentence.

"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm just so confused."

I sighed.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Gwen looked over at me.

"So, that's it? We're doing this thing tonight?"

"That's the plan. Unless you guys…"

"Don't go there. We told you that we're with you one hundred percent of the way and we meant it."

I nodded.

"Great."

"Sorry if we seem out of it. I think that some of us—" Gwen looked at Albedo as she spoke and he sighed. "—would like more of a heads up."

"It's alright. I get it. Thanks for listening."

Albedo got up with his bowl still half full of cereal.

"What are you…" I began to speak, but he cut me off.

"I kinda lost my appetite."

"Me, too." Sunny replied as she stood up with her breakfast.

"Now that I think of it, so did I." Gwen chimed in.

"Oh. Sorry, guys. I didn't mean to kill the mood."

"Don't worry about it." Sunny said. "At least you told us now instead of right after school let out."

There is that, I thought.

I stood up.

"Where are you going?" Gwen asked as she got up, too.

"Need to make a phone call."

I grabbed my phone from the table and walked through the hall to the basement stairs. As I walked down the stairs, I brought up my contact list and called Cooper. After a few rings, he picked up.

"Ben? Why are you calling me at six thirty in the morning?"

"Sorry it's so early, Cooper. Say, did my friend Nathan ever call you last night?"

"Yeah, he did. He seems like a nice guy, pretty… Wait, what does this have to do with you calling me? Again, at six thirty in the morning?"

I sighed.

"Again, sorry. Did he tell you about the raid on the Forever Knights that we're planning at your warehouse?"

"Um, yes?"

"Sorry to spring it on you like this, but we have to plan earlier than we thought we would."

"When? Why?"

"Um, today? After school, to be exact."

He was silent for a few seconds.

"Why? Why today of all times?"

"Cooper, I know I'm not making sense and I'm going to explain. Enoch is going to try to expose my identity."

"What? Expose your identity? How?"

I sighed.

Why couldn't you just make this easy, Cooper?

"He has faked footage of me abusing him and he's going to leak it to the press! That's the gist of it!"

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Don't worry about. Will you just keep the warehouse open today?"

"When? When? That's the keyword here, Ben."

God damn it, Cooper!

"We get out of school at around two thirty or three. So, probably around four. Does that work for you?"

"Yes, it does. Thank you."

"Now, I don't know which one of us will show up first. I have a couple people that I need to talk to. So, depending on the circumstances, Nathan may show up first."

"Did you tell him about the tune? I don't answer the door unless he knocks in that specific tune!"

You know, he was starting to piss me off!

"Yes, Cooper!" I shouted into the phone. "For fuck's sake, everything is just fine! Do your job and I will do mine!"

He remained silent on his end for a couple seconds.

"Dude, chill out."

Calm down. Just relax. This isn't Cooper's fault, so stop lashing out at him!

"I'm sorry. I'm just terrified and on edge since my father was shot last week and…"

"Your father was shot?"

"Yes. And please, if you're going to tell me how sorry you are, please do it later. I don't have long to talk."

"Okay. I'll open up the warehouse. Cool?"

"Fantastic. I'll talk to you later."

I hung up and slid down against the wall with a heavy sigh. I rested my forearms on my knees.

"Fuck." I said under my breath.

Sometime Later

Before we left for school, I ventured back into the bedroom. I sat down on the bed, where Snowball lay and patted her on the back a little. As I did that, I noticed a small blue notebook sitting on the nightstand next to the window. Seeing that gave me an idea and I stood again. I picked it up and grabbed a pencil before sitting back down again. I opened the front cover and was greeted by blank notebook paper. So, I began to write:

February 6th, 2019

Things aren't great. Dad's in the hospital and my secret identity could be revealed to the world at midnight tonight. Yeah. Things could certainly be better. I don't even know why I'm writing this. Maybe writing all of this down will help to reassure me about the coming storm. To whoever's reading this for whatever reason, if you start hearing bad things about me, don't believe any of it.

They'll say that I've done terrible things and none of it will be true. Sure, I've made mistakes, who hasn't? But I'm not a bad man. I've just never been more terrified in my life and I needed something to escape to for a few seconds. If things do go horribly, well, at least this can be my last will and testament, so to speak. There'll be something to set the record straight.

As I sat there writing, I was interrupted by a voice speaking out of nowhere.

Try not to worry, Ben. It may not seem like it, but even this isn't your darkest hour.

I looked up, to see nothing but an open closet ahead of me.

"Professor Paradox?" I whispered.

The worst of it has yet to come.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ben!" Albedo called from the other room. "Are you ready to go?"

I dropped everything I was doing and stood up, leaving the open notebook on the bed.

"Yeah, I'll be right there!"

An Hour Later

Madison High School

Once I got to school, I did my best to find Nathan. And thankfully, I found him. Once I did and once he noticed at me, he spoke first.

"Tennyson," he said with a nod. "You sleep well last night?"

"As well as I could, I guess."

"Well, better than no sleep at all. I have something that should buy us some extra time if it takes us five hours to reach the top floor."

Nathan leaned in a little bit before speaking in a low voice.

"Managed to procure a rudimentary EMP device, nothing too strong, just enough to knock out power in the main building if we attach it to a power box outside connected directly to the building, I can have a contact of mine do it if we start running short on time, and to that end, I've got several pairs of military grades NVGs for anyone that can't see in the dark, which means pretty much everyone barring perhaps your brother, depending on what his watch does."

"Alright. Well, let's hope that we get close before backup generators they might have kick on. Oh hey, I called Cooper this morning to tell him about the change of plans. I told him that we'd probably meet up at his warehouse at around four. Does that work out for you?"

"That'll work. I'll make sure to bring my equipment over and store it there until we hit the place. In the meantime, I'll show everyone exactly what we're walking into. Let's just hope that everything goes according to plan, at least for a bit."

"I want to tell you right now that I might be a little late. I have to find Clancy again and tell him to get a move on, I have to call Ms. Rojo, their former chief of security, to tell her what's up, and to make matters worse, my mom is absolutely not okay with me doing this, so I might have to talk her down when I get home."

"Just do what you gotta, we'll be hitting the place with or without you if you can't make it. Hopefully that won't be the case, but should it happen, we should be able to do it without you."

"Hey man, listen for a second." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. "I've said this a lot, but thanks for what you're doing for me. Really. I don't think you understand just how much this means to me. And I'm not sure that I've ever been more terrified in my life than I am right now, so knowing that I have you to help me out makes it a little better. I know that everything's going to work out fine, but that doesn't change my thought process, you know?"

"You have a right to be terrified. It's very likely things will go awry eventually once we hit the place, however as long as it happens later rather than sooner, it shouldn't be too bad. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, that's the motto I like to live by."

Nathan spoke with an understanding smile before patting me on the back.

"Relax, Tennyson, as long as we stick to the plan, everything will be just fine."

I nodded.

"Right. Well, I ought to get to class. Hopefully that'll help to take my mind off the situation. Being stressed out about it isn't going to help with my grades, so I need to try to relax a little bit."

"Alright, well you keep your head down, Tennyson. See you later." Nathan said as he began to walk away, giving me a wave as he went.

After Nathan and I parted ways, I ran into J.T. and Cash on the way to class.

"Oh, hey man!" Cash said as he raised his hand for a high five. "We've been looking all over for ya!"

When I didn't return the high hive, he knew something was off with me. Before he could answer, J.T. beat him to it.

"We wanted to tell you about a comic book store that's opening next week, called Atomic Comics. Do you want check it out with…"

"Just leave me alone, okay?!" I exclaimed. "I'm not in the mood!"

After I said that, they both looked confused. And I could tell that I had hurt their feelings.

There I go again lashing out at people who don't deserve it.

I turned away for a brief second, before turning back to them with a sigh, as I raised my hands a bit.

"I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to lash out like that. It's just that I'm going through a lot right now. My dad having been shot, my mom is really grieving and I feel really alone despite being surrounded by people. The truth is, I'd love to geek out about comics with you guys. But now isn't a good time. So please, tell me about it another time, okay?"

They still looked a bit hurt, but the looks on their faces did change a bit.

"Hey man, we get it." Cash said. "Yeah, another time."

"Another time." J.T. agreed.

"Great. Now if you don't mind, I need to get to class. I'll see you guys later."

We said our goodbyes and we departed.

Later That Day

The Tennyson House

I was in my room, packing a bag for tonight. Everyone else had gone ahead to Cooper's warehouse and I'd probably get there last. Mom walked in, probably to tell me that she was going back to the hospital.

"Guess what?" she asked.

"What?" I said as I stuffed the leg holster for my batons into the bag.

"Your father might be able to come home soon, so… What are you doing?"

"I'm packing for the raid on the Forever Knights tonight."

"I believe I told you that you won't be doing that."

I sighed.

"Well, sorry if I'm not okay with sitting here waiting for the fallout of the situation to overtake us!"

"If you would just be a good boy and stay home behaving, we wouldn't have to worry about that!

"Mom, you know what? I…"

"Why don't you just surrender? Just tell these people that you're done and they'll leave you alone!"

"Mom! I tried that! And Dad got shot because of it!"

"If you had just stayed out of this, none of this would have happened!"

"God damn it, mother!" I exclaimed with anger as I stood up to face her.

She looked offended, but I wasn't going to back down now.

"When are you going to grow up and accept that doing nothing will solve nothing?! Enoch is going to keep fucking with us and fucking with us until we're all dead! If we're do nothing to fight back, we'll end up signing our own death warrants!"

"But your father…"

"Wasn't my fault!" I screamed. "I didn't know that dad would be shot when I tried for a truce! I had your guys' safety in mind when I did that!"

She didn't say anything after that. I let out a sigh and bent back down to put my batons into my bag.

"I'm doing this to protect you, mother. If we sit back and do nothing, it will never end. It will only get worse. And by doing this, I'm getting justice for Dad!"

She still said nothing, at first. She finally sighed.

"Fine. Go get justice for your father. Since that's apparently all you know how to do."

I snorted. That didn't hurt. That just pissed me off.

"Just no one thing. If you kill that man, I'll never forgive you, Benjamin."

That's what made me snap for a second time. I grunted with anger as I punched the dresser to my left. I stood up and turned to look at her once more, as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

"So, let me get this straight. You'd rather sit back and watch our family get killed off than have your son murder the man responsible for all of our troubles?"

I scoffed before she could answer and I walked past her, bumping her aggressively in the shoulder as I passed.

"We'll be back sometime tonight." I called over my shoulder as I headed for the front door.

If everything goes according to plan, I thought.

But I didn't say that out loud. Once I stepped outside, I pulled out my phone and the card that Ms. Rojo had given me the other day. I dialed her number and waited for her to answer.

"Hello?" she grunted upon answering.

"Ms. Rojo, it's me. It's Ben…"

"I know it's you, Tennyson. I take it that we're moving today?"

"Yes, unfortunately. There was a change of events…"

"You don't have to explain anything to me, I get it. Where do I go to meet up with your group?"

"There's a warehouse on the Riverfront."

I gave her the address of Cooper's warehouse.

"Okay, I'll start heading in that direction. See you soon, Tennyson."

She hung up on me and I put my phone back into my pocket.

Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.

I headed for my car, not sure if I'd ever see my house again.

Sometime Later

Downtown Bellwood

I walked down the alley where Nathan and I had found Clancy the other day.

"Clancy! Are you here?!"

"Yeah, I'm right here."

The response came from further into the alley. I walked further in and found him, sitting amongst the trash, eating a sandwich.

"I won't ask where you got that." I said.

"Probably for the best."

"We need to get a move on. There's been a change of plans."

"Fine."

He got up and tossed the wrapper of his sandwich to the trash pile behind him.

Littering, I thought.

"You still have that address?"

"Of course, I do."

"Then start heading out. And don't do anything before I get there."

He started in the opposite direction, toward the other end of the alley.

"And Clancy? Don't forget about our deal!"

He stopped for a brief second.

"Of course." He said, barely looking over his shoulder.

He started moving again and seconds later he was gone, leaving me alone in the alley.

Around Five Ten

Cooper's Warehouse – The Riverfront

I drove into the medium sized lot outside of Cooper's Warehouse and put my car into park. I took a deep breath, when I saw Ms. Rojo and Clancy outside of the door, looking as though they were chatting. I sighed as I got out of the car, grabbing my bag as I went. I shut my car door, locked it and slipped my keys into my pocket, before approaching the two.

"Clancy, Ms. Rojo." I said as I approached them. "Having a friendly chat?"

They both turned to look at me.

"Friendly my ass!" she exclaimed. "We were on the same team, but that doesn't mean that we were on friendly terms! We were talking about how Enoch screwed both of us over."

I nodded.

"I see. Well, shall we get inside and meet the others?"

Ms. Rojo answered before Clancy could, thank God.

"Of course. Let's head on in."

I nodded and walked towards the door, with both of them behind me. I stepped up to the door of Cooper's warehouse and knocked in the "Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits" tune. A few seconds later, Cooper opened the door. He nodded upon seeing me and stepped out of the way so that Clancy, Ms. Rojo and myself could enter. As I got into the warehouse, I saw everyone gathered around a big table in the middle of the room. Nathan, Albedo, Gwen, Sunny and Julie, along with Cooper were all present and chatting amongst themselves.

"Oh, crap." I spoke as I approached them. "I'm not that late, am I?"

"Not really, most everyone just got here a little early is all." Nathan said as he saw me. "Since everyone's here now, it's a good idea to go over the plan."

Nathan got up and went over to the table, laying out the multiple sets of blueprints which now had small notes written along the edges, with arrows pointing to certain areas. As I approached the rest of them, I noticed Gwen's eyes widen.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she approached Clancy, pointing at him before she looked back at me. "What is he doing here?!"

Before I could answer, Clancy walked past me and stopped in front of Gwen.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the spicy little…"

I'm ending this right now!

I walked over to them and got in between them, putting my arms out to both of them.

"Gwen, it's fine! I think he can be of use, as the Forever Knights changed him into what he is now! Just relax, this isn't permanent!"

I turned to look at Clancy.

"As for you Clancy, back the fuck off! Ogling at my girlfriend was not in the terms! So, take a minute to remember our deal! We play nice and I let you go free, as long as you don't attack us or any civilians during or after the raid! Or, if you'd rather leave right now, I'll call S.E.C.T. and have them hunt you down, we can do that, instead! So, what's it gonna be?"

Clancy let out an angry growl, but backed up, nonetheless.

Wise move.

"Thank you. Now go sit away from the table and just listen, okay?"

I was surprised when he obeyed and departed from the main group.

"If everyone is done, please gather round, with the exception of bug boy over there." Nathan said as he gave everyone an even stare. "As you should all know, we plan on hitting the Forever Knights' main base of operations here in Bellwood. Now this isn't going to be easy, however we should have the element of surprise, because it's very likely that Enoch will not be expecting something as audacious as a direct assault on his turf. We will be entering through the basement, as thanks to some words from the previous owner of the building, I managed to learn that there is a structural weakness in one of the walls. This means we can blow right into the basement with explosives as simple as a couple sticks of dynamite."

Nathan spoke as he tapped an area of the blueprint detailing the lower levels of the building, specifically the basement.

"Everyone following along so far?"

I approached the table and got into the circle as everyone murmured their responses.

"Sure." I said as I dropped my bag at my feet.

I now noticed a stack of crates along the back wall, behind Nathan.

"Hey, what have you got there, Nathan?" I asked, gesturing to the crates.

Nathan looked over at the crates.

"Some equipment which will be used primarily by myself and Miss Rojo, at least firearms wise. A few rifles, some sidearms, a couple shotguns, as well as some sub guns. Asides from that, a fair amount of ammunition, as well as some plate carriers and armour plates for everyone as it's best you wear them just in case. Last thing I need is someone getting a gut shot."

He frowned for a moment before snapping his fingers.

"Oh, almost forgot, there's also a hundred pounds worth of C-4 plastic explosives in the bottommost crate. So try not to jostle that one and let me handle it, yeah?" he said with a smile.

After a couple seconds, I could tell that he wasn't joking.

Damn it, Nathan. I don't like the idea of using explosives for this! Whatever, there's no point in arguing.

As I thought this, I just stared at him.

"I'm not going to ask how you got ahold of that. And I'm just going to look the other way on the whole guns thing. Let's just agree to disagree on our differing methods, fair enough?"

"Fair enough."

Nathan looked back at the blueprints.

"Now, myself and Tennyson also have acquired information that most of the personnel might be willing to let us pass should they be informed that Enoch won't be holding their leashes anymore after tonight, as most of them are pretty much forced to work there after they originally employed, with no way out sans death. Meaning that if they believe they've got a proper chance at freedom, they'll take it and let us pass, while leaving the building."

"Meaning Enoch will only have whatever automatic defences in the building to keep him safe should all of his staff give him the finger. After we get to the top floor, Enoch will be apprehended and remain in his office until he is summarily executed by myself with a simple bullet through the head. Before that, however, we will interrogate him in an attempt to gain full access to his computer banks. While this interrogation happens, Cooper here will attempt to break through whatever fire walls are in place."

Nathan spoke before looking up to make sure that everyone was following along still.

I still wasn't entirely on board with Nathan being the one who will kill Enoch.

I looked over at Cooper.

"Cooper, before or after the firewalls, it doesn't matter as long as you get to it before midnight, I need a favor. You need to hack into their mainframe and erase any trace of the doctored footage of me that there is. Without that, Enoch can't expose my identity to the press and without that, he has no plan. We'll be able to afford to take a little more time, seeing as we'd no longer be on a time table."

Cooper nodded.

"You got it. I'll make it one of my primary objectives."

"Long as that's done, we'll have done what we went there to do." Nathan chimed in. "If you can copy any data afterwards, that'd be great. Make it easier to hit any labs that they might have elsewhere, as well as give us a pretty good look into their tech."

Cooper nodded in agreement and Nathan started speaking again.

"Of course we'll be hitting the security room after initial entry, and myself and Cooper will try and initiate full lockdown of the building, sealing all entries and exits barring the wall in the basement. All staff will be informed to gather in the lobby before we disable the lockdown in that area, letting everyone but Enoch and whatever fanatics he might have go free."

I looked over at Ms. Rojo.

"Ms. Rojo, I know that you used to be their chief of security." I said. "Anything you'd like to share with us?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, kid. Call me Rojo. 'Ms. Rojo' makes me sound older than I really am. Anyway, yes, I was their chief of security before that pathetic little pip-squeak took over. I know this may not be much, seeing as when we may head in, but they rotate every six hours. At that point, the previous guards are allowed to rest for a time, while the new group takes over for the following six hours. A lot of them are loyal, but some of them may be persuaded to lay down their weapons and bail when given the chance."

As she spoke, she began to count on her fingers.

"Whatever makes this less difficult. While the security's laser weapons pack a lethal punch, they do have a big disadvantage. If they are fired for continuously for about fifteen seconds or so, the battery tends to overheat and needs some time to cooldown before being able to be fired again. If you can dodge their shots long enough for their arms to overheat, that will present an excellent opportunity."

She let out a sigh before continuing.

"And lastly, if anyone's thinking about using the vents for a shortcut, don't bother. The ventilation system has its own laser defense grid and it can only be shut off from Enoch's private penthouse on the top floor. It wasn't always like that, he had it installed once he took over for his uncle. I'm afraid that's all I have. I'm sorry I can't provide more information."

After she was finished, Nathan spoke up once more.

"Got flashbang grenades in one of the crates. Only lethal if you decide to jump on one or press your face close to one when they go off. Should help, and don't try to cook one, that's only a thing in video games. Try that with the real things, and you'll end up needing to amputate your hand."

"Don't worry, kid. I can at least say that I'm familiar with military hardware."

"I assumed as much, was mostly talking to everyone else. Any idea on what kind of armour they got? If it's a Kevlar equivalent, pretty sure rifles will be more than sufficient if it comes to it."

"Could be an equivalent to Kevlar. Can't say that I ever looked into it. They only used laser weapons and that went for me too, so they had to wear a type of armor that was resistant to laser burns, thanks to their rivalry with S.E.C.T. And it didn't look like the lightest armor, but in terms of determining if it's a Kevlar equivalent, there'd be only one way to find out."

"Pretty sure black tip 5.56 and .300 Blackout is more than sufficient to test their equipment." Nathan said with a small smirk as he looked at the blueprints.

Hearing those two talk about guns and stuff is really unnerving. I'm really against the whole lethal force approach, but what can I do? Against it or not, for the sake of keeping the peace of this meeting, I have to allow it!

"From this point on, we can only rely on ourselves. Rojo, you'll be our guide once we enter the building, and you'll be charged with keeping Cooper safe. Once we have what we came for, we'll be extracting through our original insertion point, and after that I will detonate the C-4 charges that will be set on each floor as well as Enoch's office, blowing everything to kingdom come and bringing the authorities to the building, which will hopefully reveal all of the terrible shit Enoch and his uncle have done over the years."

Well, I'm not sure how anything will be revealed if we blow everything up.

I looked up as something suddenly occurred to me. I glanced over at Cooper, our host.

"Hey, Cooper? I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier, but your warehouse and all of the projects and shit that you create here, this can't be cheap. How the hell can you afford all of this?"

He returned my glance.

"I was wondering when and if you'd ask, Ben. Actually, it's kind of interesting. Pretty much the second after I started working with tech, I got an anonymous donation and a note telling me to set up shop in this warehouse. Over the next few years, the donations kept coming and they have yet to stop."

"So, you've never seen the face of the person issuing out the donations?"

Before he could answer, Sunny spoke as she leaned over the table.

"Geez, clueless much, Ben? Do you not know what anonymous means?"

"Oh, right."

Cooper continued speaking.

"Like I've said, the donations I get from an anonymous source keeps me afloat. But so far, I've never met the person or people responsible face to face. I'm just as much in the dark as you are in that regard."

Nathan spoke up after Cooper finished up with what he was saying.

"Well whoever it is clearly has an interest in what you're doing, and wants it to continue. While normally I'd just say forget about it and continue, it is a tad shady, that. Perhaps do a bit of digging if you're able, just see what you can glean, and then drop it before you get burned. Simply get in and out with any pertinent information. While I value anonymity, there's times where I'm more than willing to peer past that thin veneer to see what's going on, and I believe this is one of those times."

"Fair enough."

"You don't think it could be Enoch and his people, do you, Nathan?" I asked.

"I doubt it. Enoch wouldn't jump through that many hoops, he's too pompous for that. He's also got more than enough funding and scientists to do research around the clock. Might be someone with ties to Enoch, but again I doubt it's him pulling the strings even if Cooper's anonymous benefactor does have ties to Enoch."

I nodded.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"There will be two teams. Team one will be comprised of myself, Tennyson, Gwen, and Clancy. Team two will be made up of Cooper, Rojo, Albedo, and Sunny."

Nathan looked directly at Julie.

"Julie, and this is only if you insist on coming, as nobody's forcing you to do this. You will be on standby at the insertion point, I don't want a civilian to get mixed up in all of this, however your skills as a nurse might be needed if any of us are injured during this raid."

"If Julie comes with us, fine." I said. "I was going to say that she doesn't move up with us unless we know that the upcoming section is clear, but your plan for that part may work better."

"Too dangerous, that. Better to have her waiting at our exfil. This way, she can keep completely clear of the danger by staying back but remain nearby just in case we do get injuries."

"Okay… Let's say that she stays there, and someone gets hurt on one of the higher floors, toward the top floor. Then what do we do? What if they bleed out before… You know what? Never mind. I think I'm overthinking this. Sorry."

"That's why everyone will be wearing a plate carrier with two steel plates inside. To prevent that exact thing from happening. Just try to keep your limbs away from the blaster bolts."

"Hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves, with my abilities as a nurse." Julie replied before looking at me. "Um, Ben, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I kind of dropped out of medical school."

"Wait, you what?"

"I dropped out of medical school. And I quit my shitty job that was keeping me afloat."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

She scratched the back of her neck.

"Because this life is much more exciting than the life I was living. Being involved with you guys and seeing the crazy stuff that you guys get up to on a daily basis is so much more exciting than spending multiple hours a week in school learning medical stuff. That's when I realized I wasn't happy with what I was doing, so I quit and dropped everything I was doing, in favor of this. Just standing here listening to this is more exciting than medical school and my boring nine-to-five job ever was."

"Okay. But without a job, how can you afford that apartment of yours?"

"With the donations that Cooper gets, there's more than enough to keep us afloat. And working half days here in the warehouse was more interesting than what I was doing a few months ago, with or without you guys."

Nathan sighed.

"Well I have some training in field medicine, unfortunately I've not completed it yet, but I know all of the basics. But if anyone gets serious wounds, we'll need to find a doctor or surgeon who won't ask any questions."

"I don't want to feel useless, Nathan. I can still treat stab wounds. I've done it before. Maybe even some bullet wounds, depending on how bad they are. But wounds from explosions or amputations are going to be where I won't be of much use."

"Well its best that you remain at our exfil point. I can keep people from bleeding out if they get any minor wounds, but you'll need to keep them stable for transport once we get out of there."

She nodded.

"I understand."

"Now then," Nathan spoke. "is everyone clear on the plan, does anyone have any questions?"

"Well, that depends." I said in reply. "Is there anything else you'd want to tell us, Nathan?"

Before he could respond, Sunny spoke.

"Ben isn't accusing you of withholding information, Nathan. He's just asking if there's any other information we should know ahead of time. He's not very good at how he words certain things!"

Sunny, why you…

"There's nothing else to say unless people have questions." Nathan replied.

He said that easily. I didn't entirely trust his word. I had no idea if he was being truthful or not. As I was lost in thought, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see Albedo staring at me.

"What?" I asked with a somewhat annoyed expression on my face.

"Nothing." he said. "I was just curious about what you got in your bag there."

He gestured to the bag at my feet. The question itself was interesting seeing as all three of them also had bags with them.

"Stuff." I replied. "What's in your bags?"

"Stuff." Albedo answered as if he were mocking me.

Soon after, he began to chuckle before speaking.

"Just a change of clothes, buddy."

After that, Sunny spoke up.

"I brought the combat armor that I used to wear when you actually let us go out on patrol with you."

She gestured to one of the three bags sitting near the crates along the back wall.

"And mine has my costume in it." Gwen chimed in, before turning to Cooper. "Do you have a changing room here?"

"In the very back." Cooper replied, pointing in that direction.

"Thanks."

Gwen walked around the table and to the back wall, grabbed her bag and headed toward the changing room that Cooper had pointed out as Nathan began speaking again.

"Vests with plates will weigh about eighteen pounds. You'll need them, because you don't want to be on the other end of a blaster bolt without armour. And we'll be hitting the building in…"

He checked his watch before continuing.

"…three and a half hours."

He went over to the crates and started moving them with what appeared to be no difficulty at all, despite the fact that most of them weighed a hefty amount. I hunched down as he did this, unzipped my bag and pulled out my batons, along with the leg holster for them. I stood up and placed them on the table in front of me.

"Are those the batons that I made for you?" Cooper asked. "The batons that your mother doesn't want you to use?"

I nodded.

"Yep. And that's coming from the same person who thinks that I should do absolutely nothing and allow Enoch to continue fucking us into oblivion, so I don't know what the hell she expects from me. But, you know."

"Give her some time, she'll cool down after realizing that Enoch had a target on your back and theirs since his uncle got wood-chippered." Nathan said as he grabbed a crowbar and started cracking open the crates. "It takes time, but she'll get over it eventually. Especially when things go back to normal, that normal being no longer being targeted by a man in charge of what was likely a multimillion or multi billion dollar pharmaceutical company."

"Hey," Albedo spoke as he turned to me. "We already know that you were essentially ripping off Spider-Man with the costume and those wrist gauntlets of yours. But with those batons… Were you ever aware that you might be ripping off Kick-Ass?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I muttered.

About a minute or so of silence passed between us after that, as Nathan continued working with his crates. Gwen eventually returned, wearing her costume and holding her mask, along with the belt that had the Charm of Bezel in the middle.

"You know, I just had a thought." She broke the silence. "How the hell am I supposed to wear armor with my catsuit?"

Before anyone could answer, Cooper, Albedo and I all began snickering.

"Yes, I said 'catsuit'. Grow up!"

"Put it on over the suit." Nathan said as he put some vests on the table. "Marines and Rangers wear this over somewhat baggy camouflage pattern clothes. You should be fine wearing it over a form fitting suit."

"If you say so." She replied.

Before she even got back to the table, she spoke out in a harsh tone.

"Hey, I see you over there, staring! Mind your own God damn business!"

"You wish, lady!" Clancy called back.

I sighed with anger as I looked over at Clancy.

"Clancy, less talky, more whatever the fuck you're supposed to be doing over there!"

I only looked away once I was satisfied that he had gotten the message, as Gwen returned to the table.

"Show of hands, who here has fired a gun before and is willing to use one?" Nathan said as he started taking guns out of the crates and placing them on a nearby folding table.

Rojo raised her hand as Sunny spoke.

"The Forever Knights trained me in the use of firearms, along with everything else they taught me after my birth. But if I'm being honest, I'm much more comfortable with the pair of Twin Sais that I have in my bag."

Before Nathan could respond, Albedo spoke up.

"Ben and I have used laser arms before. I can't speak for him, but I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with using a real gun."

"Right. I know Rojo is fine with guns, so you can take your pick. Got some Benelli M4 Semiautomatic shotguns, some M4A1s, some M16A4s if you want something that packs a bit more punch, an H&K MP5, and a SIG Sauer MPX. That wraps it up for primary weapons. As for pistols, we've got a fair few Beretta M9 pistols, a couple SIG Sauer P228s and finally some P320s. There is a crate full of attachments if you plan on kitting out your weapons. Cooper, Julie, either of you want a gun, just in case?"

Rojo replied first.

"Can I get an MP5 and an M9 as my backup? I think that would work fine for me."

Julie replied after.

"I'm not good with guns. They make me a bit squeamish. I don't know if you had another plan for me if I prefer to remain unarmed."

Cooper spoke after Julie.

"I'm not too good with conventional firearms, myself. I much prefer to work with laser arms. If it's all the same to you, once we're in I could just steal one when the opportunity presents itself. And while on that topic, maybe you could secure a few different variants of their arms while we're there. I'd like to tinker with them and come up with my own designs, if that's okay with you."

Nathan grabbed both of the guns that Rojo had requested and tossed them to her before going over and grabbing magazines and boxes of ammo. He set both down on the table and started loading magazines.

"I can loan you my personal hunting knife, Julie, provided you're okay with handling blade. Though I'd prefer you have a pistol at the very least as going at a guard wielding a laser rifle while wielding a knife would be rather unwise, to say the least. Same goes for you, Cooper. Better to have a gun and not need it, then need a gun and not have one." Nathan spoke as he continued to load magazines.

"I think I'd be okay with using a blade." Julie replied.

"Fine. I'll take a sidearm, but I'm grabbing a laser arm at the first opportunity." Cooper chimed in. "I'm much more accurate with those and what about my request of acquiring some of their weapons to take back with me?"

"Take as many of them as you want, I've little use for laser weaponry, so take as many as you can carry. Can take a large duffel bag with you to keep them in if you're so keen on grabbing a few models."

Nathan tossed Julie the blade which was still in its sheath.

"There you go."

Just taking a look at it, I could tell you that it was massive. The blade alone was at least a foot long, if not more and the hilt being somewhere around four inches. It looked more like a machete than it did a hunting knife.

"Hey, Nathan?" Albedo spoke up. "I've kind of warmed up to Ben's methods. I'll kill if I have to, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it. I can use my Dark Omnitrix, but it still has a recharge time. Do you have a handgun that's powerful, but not too powerful?"

Nathan let out a dry chuckle.

"The U.S. Military doesn't exactly deal in non lethal firearms. Not to mention your only option for handguns is nine millimeter. Your choice of which you'd like to use is between the classic Beretta M9, the old standby for England's military, the SIG Sauer P228, and the new up and comer, the SIG Sauer P320. All are chambered in 9x18mm Parabellum, and all three sport fifteen round magazines, with one additional round held in the chamber. So it's a matter of personal preference and which one feels the best for you."

Albedo let out a sigh.

"Then give me an M9, I guess." He said in a quieter tone.

One good look at Albedo's face and I could tell that he was thinking about avoiding kill shots at all costs. Nathan walked over and placed an M9 into Albedo's hands.

"I recommend seeing how it feels before you make your final decision." He said before going back and loading the rest of the magazines, with the exception of the shotguns in which he left the box of 12 gauge shells alone.

Albedo sighed once again.

"It feels kind of heavy, but I think I could get used to it. You know what? I'm just going to say it. I don't know how I feel about using a gun. I know I don't really have much of a choice, because I have a feeling it's either I go in with one just in case or I don't go in at all."

I shot Nathan a thoughtful look.

"You know, when we switched Omnitrixes and a shred of the Dark Omnitrix rubbed off on me, maybe the same happened to him. Maybe after being attached to me for so long, it started to pass bits of my personality along to Albedo. What do you think? After he got his Omnitrix back, he became much nicer and much more thoughtful than he used to."

"It would stand to reason. Each would try to bond with their new host, likely imparting your traits to him as his did to you. Now I'm wondering if maybe you should try and get you know who to wear the Omnitrix, make them easier to deal with in the future as they'd be more likely to listen to reason."

Nathan looked over to Albedo.

"Just know that if you're forced to take a life, it's never easy. The only thing that happens is you get used to it and can sleep at night, or you simply never get used to it."

I shrugged in response to what he said to both of us.

"I'm not entirely sure I'd be comfortable with that."

Albedo spoke up next.

"If you give me a gun, I just can't go for headshots. I'll daze them or wound them enough for them to stumble, and someone will have to take the kill shot. I don't think that I can do it. As long as we're clear on that."

"Fair enough, to both of you."

Albedo looked over to me.

"So, are we getting anyone else to help us?" he asked.

I gave him a look.

"What do you mean? This is it, man. Nathan and I collaborated to form this meeting. And I talked to Rojo and Clancy, who I promised his freedom as long as he doesn't go back to slaughtering civilians after this—"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he whispered.

"Hey man, it's the best I could do!" I kind of whispered back. "It's either promise him something or he's essential working for us for free!"

"I heard that!" Clancy called.

"You were supposed to. Be quiet."

I turned back to Albedo.

"Um, and I also to talked to Vilgax and Leon Jones."

When everyone except for Nathan gave me a look of confusion, I spoke again.

"Sixsix?"

That fixed it.

"And Vilgax gave me this—" I fished the electronic pad out of my pocket. "This is supposed to call a dozen of his drones which will be programmed to follow me. I suppose that I could call them in once we get into the tower."

Nathan spoke up almost immediately after I proposed that idea.

"However this issue with calling in the drones is that due to us not knowing what the friend/foe parameters on them are, we cannot be sure that they won't just light up everyone in the building, that includes all of us as well, as they may attack everyone barring Tennyson here. Due to that, we are to call in the drones as an absolute last resort, in order to avoid a possible, as I don't exactly like the words 'acceptable civilian casualties' being used in a sentence."

He said all this as he finished loading the last magazine and setting it down on the table, before going over to peer at the blueprints, likely making sure that he hadn't missed anything. I just stared at him, before cursing.

"God damn it!" I exclaimed as I tossed the pad to my left.

Albedo and Cooper both ducked, while the Cooper himself caught it in his hand.

"Chill out, Ben! It's fine!" he said.

"I'm sorry, I'm just pissed off. How the fuck did I not think about that?!"

I kicked one of the legs of the table.

"Fuck!"

"Cool it, Tennyson. You were the only one to approach Vilgax, and you likely divulged as little information as possible to ensure that he would remain pretty much in the dark about what was happening asides from you organizing a raid on the Forever Knights." Nathan said as he looked towards me.

I sighed.

"What about Sixsix?" Albedo asked. "Why isn't he here?"

I barely turned my head to look at him.

"He's not coming."

"What do you mean?"

"I tried to convince that I needed his help and that his deceased wife and kid would want him to get payback on the guy that forced him to take the life of an innocent man, not to sit back and do nothing."

"And?"

I fully turned to look at him.

"And he tried to blow me away with a Spas-12."

A look of worry came to Albedo's face, before it settled again.

"He'll come around."

I looked at him funny.

"Will he, though?"

I turned to Nathan.

"Nathan, level with me for a second. Put yourself in Leon's shoes. Let's just hypothetically say that I beat you within an inch of your life, that I came to ask you for help and told you that your deceased wife and kid would want you to get back at the man who screwed you over. Would you be so keen on helping me out, even if it is the right thing?"

Nathan clasped his hands together and pressed the tips of his thumbs against his forehead as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling and pointing at me, hands still clasped together.

"Tennyson, take a moment to think about what you just said to me, and then ask yourself that question."

I resisted the urge to slam my fists down onto the table.

What part of put yourself in Leon's shoes and hypothetical…

I let out a sigh and cleared my head.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. I don't blame him. Even if he was the one who shot my dad, he was only ordered to do so. I'm on the fence regarding whether or not I should have beat him. But I was blinded by rage, what else could I do?"

"Take a moment to stop and calm down, then debate on whether you should confront him after making the choice to beat him half to death?"

I don't get to just drop this, do I? Fuck me.

I thought about it, but then decided to let it go. I didn't really want to talk about this anymore. Nathan seemed to lose interest in the topic I had brought up and looked elsewhere. His brow furrowed as he looked at whatever he was looking at.

"Gwen," he spoke. "mind my asking about that charm?"

I turned to look at Gwen, still holding her mask and belt.

How the fuck does he know that it's a charm?

"Oh, this thing?" she asked. "It slightly changes my appearance. Watch."

She put on her belt and her appearance changed so that she had black hair and blue eyes, instead of the fiery red hair and emerald green eyes. She put on her mask afterwards and shrugged.

"The charm honestly doesn't do that much. And this mask is pretty impractical, it only covers a tiny portion of my face. I could not wear it and it wouldn't change much."

"Huh… yeah, it just reminds me of a good luck charm that my family on my mother's side has had for generations. As far as I know, it's just an old rune stone that was carved some ten odd generations ago, but after seeing what that little thing can do, that rune stone might be hiding something. Or it's just your average rock, who knows?"

Gwen shrugged.

"Yeah, fair enough."

Albedo turned to look at me.

"What about you? Where's your costume?"

I shook my head.

"I don't have one anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I handed in my costume to Enoch as a gesture for peace. I hoped that if I told him I'd leave him alone, that he'd do the same."

"Why'd you do that for?" Albedo asked, while Cooper replied: "And how'd that go?"

I sighed.

"Come the fuck on, people. After all the shit he had done to me, is it really that farfetched to think that I offered him a truce, if it meant that things could go back to some kind of norm?"

Nathan chimed in.

"Not expected, and probably what Enoch was betting on. You get rid of your costume, you get rid of the only thing keeping you hidden from the world, and your ability to stop him as you can no longer hide your face. Rather well thought out, actually."

I nodded.

"Yeah, fair enough. I get that."

Albedo continued speaking.

"Well, don't you have something to at least cover your face?"

I hunched down again and got into my bag.

"I have this." I said as I stood back up with a black ski mask in my hands.

I put it on my head and adjusted it so I could actually see.

"It's not the best thing in the world, but it's what I could find."

Albedo, Cooper, Sunny and even Gwen all began laughing. I looked at all of them with anger.

"What? I know that some of you may not care about having a secret identity." I said as I took off the ski mask and put it on the table. "Now that my dad's in the hospital, I can't afford to let my face be seen, especially with the given stakes, even if Enoch knows who I am. Without my costume, this is the best I can do."

Before anyone else could, Cooper spoke up.

"I hate to burst your bubble Ben, but your costume wasn't that great."

I turned to look at him.

"Now what the hell does that mean?"

"I may have put up with multiple repair jobs on that suit for you, but it wasn't your best work. You're not really good at coming up with suits, pal. It was not a good suit, if you ask me."

"What?!" I exclaimed with confusion.

I turned to Nathan before Cooper could say anything else.

"Come on, Nathan. Was my costume really that bad? I'm not rich! I don't have a sewing machine or good material to use for a costume! I had to work with what I had! And if you ask me, a leather jacket, black suit Spider-Man top, mask, and gloves, and wrist gauntlets was better than nothing."

"Hmm, rather noire if you ask me. Though some added leather padding beneath the suit likely would've made it a bit better. I usually make it a point to roll with the punches if it comes to a fist fight, blows always end up being glancing as a result, but leather padding always helps if you know you're going to take a few blows."

I nodded.

"Alright. I think that makes sense."

Cooper continued looking at me.

"Again Ben, you're just not that good at making your own costume. Which reminds me—"

He turned in Julie's direction.

"—Julie!"

She looked up.

"Hmm?" she grunted with a questioning look on her face.

"The suit."

"Oh, right!"

Julie ran over to a computer terminal not too far away from the table and began typing on its keyboard. I turned back to Cooper as he looked at me as well.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"You'll see."

I turned back to Julie and continued watching what she was doing. A few seconds later, I began to hear a whirring sound. I turned toward the source of the sound and now noticed a cabinet of some kind rising from the floor. Once it was fully up, I approached and a second or two later, it opened.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I said as everyone else had mixed reactions.

Gwen let out a whistle, as Albedo, Sunny and Rojo spoke.

"What the hell?"

"Ooo, nice!"

"That's a pretty cool design, kid!"

I was staring at a Spider-Man costume. Or the basic outline for one, anyway. Trade out the blue and red for jet black and bright green respectively. The lenses were blue, instead of white. And there were no webs or spider logos. Instead, in the middle of the chest, there was a green medium-sized hourglass set within a black circle. The symbol of the Omnitrix. I stepped up to it and touched it. It was so slick. It looked clean!

"Wow." Was all I could say.

Cooper stepped up behind me.

"I worked on this for months just for you, Ben. Your own unique look that hasn't been done before." He said. "Do you like it?"

I wanted to turn to look at him, but my eyes were glued onto the suit.

"Are you kidding?! I love it!"

"This sucker will stop a knife! Well, a switchblade, at least? Anything bigger and sharper than that, and you may need luck on your side. You can still stick to walls via static cling. And there's a light armor weaved into the suit. It'll stop light gun fire, but only light. Laser burns too, but you'll still have to worry about the burn marks. Any armor that's heavier would weigh you down."

"Oh, Cooper. It's perfect!"

Nathan grunted in approval.

"Well, no better way to stress test it than this raid. Though if I were you, I'd take a pair of NVGs, as I'll have my contact fry the building's power grid if Cooper can stop the video from going live before we reach the halfway point. Once lights are out, most of the guards should be relatively in the dark, at least temporarily if the EMP doesn't knock out the backup generators that the building likely has. This will give us an advantage for a short while, enough to deal with a lot of the opposition if they set up checkpoints every other floor."

"Fair enough." Cooper replied as he turned back to me. "That's not all, though."

He turned to Julie once again.

"Julie?"

I turned to look at Julie, to see that she had a watch-like mechanism on each of her wrists. Without saying anything to Cooper, she aimed one of her hands at the ceiling and within a second, a rope shot out of it, attaching itself to the ceiling above. She held onto the rope with both hands as she flipped her legs up into the air, so that she was hanging upside down from the rope.

"Well?" she asked in an excited tone. "What do you think?"

I stepped up to her and looked up at the rope. No, not rope. It was way too thin to be a rope. Cooper stepped up to me.

"It took quite a long time to crack the web formula." He said with a hand on his chin.

"Web formula?" I asked as I poked Julie in the chest, sending her backwards. "You don't mean…"

"Hey, stop! You're making me dizzy!"

"Yeah, baby!" Cooper exclaimed, ignoring Julie's pleas. "Real life web shooters!"

I furrowed my brow.

"Real life web shooters? How is that even possible?"

"Well, like I said, it took a long time to crack the formula. A formula that they don't even tell you the proper ingredients for in the comics! It took a lot of lab explosions, being plastered by web formula and us having to clean each other off…"

"Cooper?" Julie asked as she hung there. "I thought we were going to keep that to ourselves?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, honey."

I turned to him and shrugged.

"Eh, I don't know. Web shooters are cool and all, but I don't know that I'd ever use them. I was inspired by Spider-Man, but I don't want to rip off his entire gimmick!"

"Rip off?!" Albedo spoke. "You were ripping him off already with the static cling gloves and wrist gauntlets!"

I sighed. Before I or Albedo could speak again, Cooper beat us to it.

"We needed to change from wrist gauntlets, because they're heavy and weigh you down. The shooters are much lighter and convenient."

"It's just, if I get the Omnitrix back, I'd only use the suit and the shooters as a fallback option."

"Fair enough."

"Keep them on you, last thing you need is to not have them when something too big for the Omnitrix to handle gets thrown at you." Nathan spoke as he looked at this watch and took a breath. "Alright, we hit the building in about three hours, best to get your affairs in order before we hit this place, just as a precaution."

Cooper looked back at me.

"Well, are you going to go try it on or what?"

I looked back at him.

"Oh, right!"

Cooper helped me get the suit off of the mannequin and I grabbed my batons, leg holster and bag before I moved toward the changing room in the back.

A Few Minutes Later

After getting dressed, I put the batons into my leg holster and then attached that to my right leg. I put my bag over my shoulder and approached the door. I took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping back out into the warehouse. I approached the table again as everyone was chatting amongst themselves. I came to a stop as most of them noticed me.

"Well?" I asked as I put the mask on. "How do I look?"

Albedo walked up to me, came to a stop and just stared at me for a few seconds.

"You're fucking awesome!" he exclaimed before turning to look at Cooper. "Where's mine? I want mine!"

"Oh!" Cooper said with surprise. "I just made one for Ben. If you're really interested, you could submit a design to me and I'd be glad to make it for you!"

Before Albedo could respond, Nathan spoke.

"Albedo, put a lid on that. Right now, we need to focus on the mission. The biggest issue won't be the guards or getting to Enoch's office, it's getting inside. After what you guys pulled a while back, he's likely beefed up his defences, so don't be surprised to be met with reinforced steel doors and automatic laser turrets and the like be defending the entrance to his office. Entry through the windows are a no go, too damn open. So just remember to take it slow once we reach that floor, because at that point we're walking into unknown territory."

Albedo let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Oh, alright."

Thirty Minutes Later

About half an hour later, everyone was pretty much just standing around, chatting amongst themselves, as we'd heard everything that Nathan had to say. As I stood there, since having taken off my mask, thinking to myself, Albedo walked up to me.

"Hey." He said, getting my attention.

"Hmm? What is it, Albedo?"

"What was your plan?"

"What are you talking about?"

As he spoke again, everyone else seemed to catch on and stopped what they were doing, opting to listen to what we were talking about.

"Well, we heard what Nathan had to say. But did you have a plan?"

"Did I have a plan? Honestly, I guess my plan would have been to charge straight in. Not that that's ever gonna happen."

"Ben, I understand what this means to you, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that I'm not willing to die for your quest of vengeance."

I don't know why he was taking this so seriously, as what I had just said wasn't the plan we were going with. But at the same time, I beginning to get angered and annoyed for some reason. As he walked away from me, I began to speak out in an angry tone.

"Really? Wow, Albedo. You know what? I don't know why I'm surprised. I thought that after everything you people have put me through, that you'd have my back!"

He turned around to face me with surprise. Before I could respond though, Sunny beat him to it.

"Everything we put you through? What did we ever do to you?"

As I stood there, a deafening voice screamed into my ears.

LET THE DEVIL OUT!

Albedo

Ben let out a dry chuckle as I noticed a slight red glow in his eyes.

"What did you do to me?" he said with a sigh. "You stabbed me in the stomach, you tried to steal my girlfriend, and that's just how we met!"

"Ben, what's your problem?!" I asked.

"You're my problem! You have always been my problem!" he screamed with pulsating red eyes. "Each and every one of you is just a problem that I have to deal with on a daily basis!"

As his last few words echoed off of the walls, I looked down at the ground. No one said a word with the obvious feeling of depression in the air.

Ben

As the anger faded away, I realized what I had done. I had hurt my friends and family. Even Cooper and Julie looked awkward, as they did their best to avoid looking at me.

"Guys, wait." I said in an apologetic tone.

Everyone except for Gwen walked away from me without a word, as if they were telling me to fuck off. However, before Gwen could say anything to me, Nathan began to approach me, looking more pissed off than anything.

"Tennyson, I told you that we have to hit this place with a plan. Rushing in half cocked will only get you killed, especially as you are now!" he said upon reaching me. "We'll go with that plan if you can do one thing: Knock me down. Do that, and I'll follow you."

It was as if Nathan was mocking me and that really pissed me off. So, I threw a punch at a now standing still Nathan, only for him to dodge out of the way, seemingly with little effort. He went under my punch and got behind me. Before I could even react, I felt a painful strike to the back of my leg, bringing me down to my knees. I then found myself pushed over onto the warehouse floor.

"That, Tennyson, is why we can't just rush in there. Lack of powers notwithstanding, you're not even at the top of your game right now, you're a street brawler who's whole plan is to just walk into the joint, knock out some guards, and get to Enoch. After what you did to the bastard who shot your dad, they're definitely aware you're wanting payback. Without a plan, you'll be on your knees and executed not five minutes after you bust into the place!"

Humiliated while I'm in my new costume and he's still mocking me! Can't I catch a break?!

I let out an angry grunt and slammed my fist into the floor, which was a mistake seeing as it hurt my hand to do so. Nathan grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet as he spoke again.

"Either we hit this place with a plan, or not at all, Ben."

I yanked my hand away from Nathan's hand and got up myself, although slower than I would have liked.

"Don't fucking touch me." I muttered as I looked at him, panting as I caught my breath, before I spoke more. "I thought you have all people would have understood. That asshole tried to kill my father and I plan to compensate him and then some."

I looked around to room, to see everyone had a look of hurt and anger on their faces.

"I'll do this myself. I'm out of here."

I turned around as I put my mask back on and headed for the exit. I heard footsteps following after me, but I paid no attention to them. I exited the warehouse, but the footsteps still followed me. I turned around, ready to tell Nathan off.

"I don't care what you have to say to me, but—"

Only I didn't expect it to be Gwen, and not Nathan. She put her hands on my shoulder.

"And I don't care what you want! I'm not going to let you go in there alone, so I'm coming with you! We don't need them. We'll do this ourselves."

I let out a sigh.

"Fine. If you say so."

"Good!" she spoke as she turned around so that I faced her back. "Hop on, then."

I gave her a quizzical look.

"Hop on? What the hell are you talking about?"

She let out an annoyed sigh and then surprised me by rising off of the ground, before levitating a few feet off the ground.

Is… Is she flying?

"Um, do you fly now?" I found myself asking.

She chuckled as she turned herself in midair to look at me.

"I fly now. Now, will you put your arms around my neck?"

She turned herself as she lowered a bit, so that her back was to me again. I approached her and put my arms around her neck as she instructed, as I tried to wrap my head around this concept.

"How is this even possible?" I asked.

"Like I told you before," Gwen spoke as we started moving through the air, likely heading toward our destination. "when you wouldn't allow us to go with you out on patrols, I had to train myself to use my abilities. And eventually I discovered that I had the power to fly and levitate."

"How are you able to do it?"

"I think that my mana powers it. But I can't fly for very long. So far, I've only been able to fly for half an hour at a time. But we'll reach the tower before I run out of energy."

"Well, that's a relief."

Sometime Later

The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters

We eventually reached Enoch's Tower and Gwen brought us down. After we touched the ground in an alley, I got off and let out a sigh. Before I could speak, Gwen beat me to it.

"You know, you're actually much lighter than I had expected."

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult. But either way, that's going to take some getting used to."

"You won't have to. I won't always carry you on my back everywhere we go."

"Fair enough, I guess. Shall we get on with this?"

I began to walk toward the end of the alley, but Gwen let out a whistle, causing me to stop in my tracks. I turned around to look at her, who was pointing at a manhole.

"We go through the sewer and enter through that section of basement that they don't use anymore, remember?"

"But I—"

"You want to do it your way? Fine. But at the very least, Nathan's right. You'll get yourself killed going in through the front and we need to maintain the element of surprise."

I let out a sigh.

"Fine. Let's go, then."

A Few Minutes Later

After working our way through the sewers for a few minutes, we came to an old looking door. And seeing as we didn't stray from the building's perimeter, I found this to be promising.

"Well?" Gwen asked. "Are you going to open it or not?"

I did as she asked and began turning the valve on the door until I heard a clicking sound. I then pulled the big door open and was greeted to darkness on the other side.

"After you." Gwen spoke.

I turned to look at her.

"Gee, thanks."

I turned back to the door and walked through it as Gwen followed.

"It's really dark. Does this place have any lights?" Gwen asked.

I searched around for a switch, a string, anything and eventually found something that resembled a switch. After pulling it, the lights came on and I saw an old, damp, moldy room.

"Well, that was convenient." I said as I stepped in, referencing the switch.

"Oh my God, Ben. What is that?" Gwen spoke in a distressed voice.

I turned to look at her and saw that she was pointing at something. So, I turned to look what she was pointing at and was shocked myself, to see a skeleton sitting against the wall across the room, wearing tattered clothes, with one hand still gripping another valve like mechanism on a door, while the other hand rested against the chest of the skeleton at an angle.

"Yikes, that's about as old as you can get!" I spoke as I stepped forward to get a closer look at it.

I noticed a duffle bag sitting close to the skeleton, that was filled with what looked like explosives. That's when it hit me.

"No way." I spoke as I began searching through what remained of the skeleton's tattered jeans. "There's no way."

"Ben? What the hell are you doing?" Gwen asked.

I ignored her as after a few seconds, I found what I had been looking for: a wallet. I searched through it for identification, a driver's license, anything of the sort. And I found one. I pulled it out and let out a breath after looking at it. I sighed as the reality of my discovery set in.

"Ben? What is it?"

"It's him." I replied as I turned to show her the ID card. "It's Jack Abernathy."

"The founder of Blue Cross?"

I nodded. I put the card back into the wallet and set it back down beside Abernathy's skeleton.

"How did he get here? Do you think the Forever Knights had his body placed here?"

I shook my head.

"No. Take a look at his body. It's too perfect. It looks like he died while he was in the middle of something. Maybe of a heart attack."

"Well, what do we do with him?"

"Nothing. We're on a timetable. There's nothing that we can do right now. We'll have to report it to the police or something after we're done here. Let's move."

I gently pried Abernathy's hand from the valve and began to turn it, unlocking the door. I opened it to reveal a staircase that went nowhere. The only thing there was a ceiling right above the stairs.

"Ben, that staircase goes nowhere." Gwen told me from right behind me.

"I don't think so." I said as I turned to face her. "There's no other door in this room. It's gotta be this way."

I walked up the stairs as far as I could go and then put my hands on the ceiling, pushing a little. I was surprised when the "ceiling" began to move upwards.

"I stand corrected." Gwen replied.

I pushed the false ceiling all the way up so that it rested against the wall along the top of the stairs. I walked the rest of the way up the stairs and came to a stop once I entered the room above. The room was much cleaner and looked like a storage room. Gwen followed after me and we moved through the room, toward the door at the other side of the room. We walked through the door and found ourselves in a warehouse sized room, that was completely crowded.

"Ben, what is this?" Gwen asked.

I let out a sigh.

"He must have continued trying to get her right. Until she was nothing but a mindless drone."

The first of many clones of myself and Sunny approached us, looking not at all friendly. One of them cracked their knuckles as he spoke in a deep voice.

"You have no idea how much trouble you are in."

I let out a sigh as I pulled my batons from my leg holster.

"Well, I thought this was too easy so far." I replied, preparing myself for a fight.

Sunny

Sometime Earlier

Cooper's Warehouse – The Riverfront

After Ben had flipped out and left, with Gwen following closely, everyone just kind of spread out in the warehouse and did their own things thanks to the depressing atmosphere left behind by Ben. I knew that Ben would get himself killed, so I walked up to Nathan to talk to him about the situation.

"Hey, Nathan? Look, I know well enough that Ben can be hotheaded even on normal circumstances. And you should've known that when you signed up to help him, that he doesn't always follow a plan. Improvising is one of his big strengths. I'm not saying that going against a plan is improvising, it's not. But we need to go save Ben from himself. If he doesn't get himself killed, he'll only make things worse. And I don't want to see him suffer."

"Trust me, we're going after him, and I'll knock his ass out cold myself if he doesn't listen to reason. Would've preferred to do things my way, as we'd have a lot more success, but considering that he's struggling under that damn voice's influence, it'll not be easy to get through to him. Let's just hope we can reach him before he gets to the building."

"Nathan, just do me a favor."

"I can promise you he'll not get harmed, at least not by the Forever Knights. As for myself, I'll go easy on him if it comes to that."

"I don't care about that. If he has to get roughed up a little bit, fine. But if he asks about us coming for him, don't tell him that it was me that talked to you about it."

He gave me a lopsided smile.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've told a lie, won't be the last. He'll be none the wiser that it was you, trust me on that."

Ben

Present Time

Downtown Bellwood – The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters

Gwen and I continued fighting the clones of Sunny and myself. A while ago, I had come to the conclusion that these things were nothing more than mindless drones. My batons weren't doing much to them. It was just fazing them ever so slightly. And when an opportunity presented itself, Gwen would hit one or two of them with her Gwen-Bolts. I will admit that her Bolts did incapacitate some of them, but only temporarily.

"Regretting your decision yet?" Gwen called from across the room.

As I fended off my assailants, I turned to look at her.

"A little bit." I muttered.

We kept holding off the clones, still making no progress. It really wasn't looking good and I was fearing that this would end in the worst way possible. Fortunately, my fears would be short lived. As two clones of Sunny and one clone of me approached, suddenly three ninja stars came flying out of nowhere, embedded themselves into each of their foreheads.

"Hell, yeah!" a familiar voice exclaimed. "Nine points!"

I turned around, to see the real Sunny, followed by Nathan, Albedo, Cooper, Rojo and Clancy, all of them having come from the path that Gwen and I had arrived through.

Well, the cavalry has arrived. I can't say that I'm ungrateful about this.

I continued fending off a new group of clones which kept coming, as Nathan and Rojo began to gun some of them down. Cooper and Albedo were back to back handling their own small group, with Cooper using his sidearm without any problems and Albedo using melee attacks to stagger the clones. I noticed how he wasn't using his firearm. As he fought them, he made his way over to me.

"Thanks for coming to my rescue." I replied as he joined me in the fight against my group.

"Don't thank me. Thank Sunny." He responded as he attacked two of them that got too close.

"Wait, are you serious?"

"Yep. I overheard her telling Nathan that we needed to come save your ass. She also told him not to tell you that she urged him to come get you if you asked about it."

"Why would she urge him to come help me? And why wouldn't she want me to know about it?"

"I don't know! Come on man, this is Sunny we're talking about!"

I nodded.

"That's true."

Meanwhile, Clancy was slaughtering his own groups of clones. Usually I wouldn't take too kindly to this, but seeing as they were nothing more than mindless drones bred to serve Enoch and the Forever Knights, I decided to let it go. With the additional backup, we'd probably make short work of them and which we did. We most certainly did. We did. After all of the clones were disposed of and they had quit coming, I noticed Nathan approaching me. So, I prepared myself for the inevitable consequences of going off on my own, with or without Gwen. Before he could speak, I beat him to it.

"Look, before you call me an asshole or an idiot or both, just hear me out. I'm not quite myself right now! I'm scared and angry at the same time and I get what I did wasn't cool, but I can't exactly help it. The voice took a chance when Albedo asked if I would have had my own plan and it influenced me as such. So, I'm sorry. And I will gladly accept any name that anyone wants to call me, should we get out of this."

Before he could respond, Albedo spoke up first.

"Let's just see if we can survive the coming storm first, shall we?"

Nathan put a bullet through the head of the last clone, killing it outright.

"You're a boneheaded idiot who doesn't think before he leaps, Tennyson. Try to work on toning that down, yeah? Now let's go kill that SOB." He said as he swapped out his empty magazine for a full one.

Boneheaded idiot? Why I ought to...

Still, I could collect from his tone that he was ticked off with me, but he was willing to let me off the hook, if even just a little bit. I spoke to him again.

"Did you guys find the body, erm, skeleton, on your way in, too?"

"Yep. I'm going to take a guess and say that it's Abernathy. Poor bastard, looks like he kicked it before he could enact his plan of revenge against David, likely a heart attack or the like given his age and the amount of stress he was likely dealing with at the time."

I turned to Clancy, knowing that I wanted to get him far away from me and my team. I pointed at him.

"Clancy, go on ahead up a few floors ahead of us and start dispatching the guards."

He nodded at me. He turned and sprinted back toward the path that we had arrived through.

"And remember! No killing civilians!"

"Of course, of course!" he called back.

I turned to look at Nathan and I could see the disapproval on his face.

"Hey, I know what you're thinking. But I think we should send him forward a bit. It would be good to get him a distance away from us."

"That's going to make getting a lot of the personnel still here rather difficult to stand down and leave, given that a giant bug monster now currently ripping their colleagues limb from limb. Guess we'll have to access the PA system here if they have one from the security room, get everyone to gather in the lobby and leave, seeing as they'll be unemployed after tonight."

I turned to Albedo next.

"Albedo, take that elevator up to the next floor—" I pointed at said elevator. "—and use transform into Dark Fourarms on the way up and clear a path for us. Thanks to what Gwen and I did, they're probably well aware that we're here and they'll be waiting on the next floor for us."

He nodded just like Clancy had and got to it.

A Few Minutes Later

Sometime after Albedo had left, the elevator came back down and we got ready for anything. Fortunately, it was just Albedo returning from the upper floor. He didn't even need to say anything, although once he returned, Nathan spoke up.

"Remember, final floor is unknown territory. No blueprints concerning the state of the room itself, only the layout. No mention of defences or anything, so stay frosty."

After Nathan was through with speaking, we all boarded the elevator and took it up to the next floor. As the elevator took us up, time seemed to slow down for me, as all kinds of thoughts just went through my head.

You know, I've read through many stories in my life, in which some brave hero decides to give his life for the greater good. And because of his sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer and everyone lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice was worth it. They'll never know if the day is truly saved. So, that being said, will we see that ending? One could only hope.

Epilogue 1

Smith

Enoch's Office – The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters

I used my free hand to knock on the door to Enoch's office, as I was using my other hand to carry a hefty manilla folder filled to the brim with papers and with a small Ziplock bag with a flash drive attached to the front of it.

"Come." I heard Enoch speak from the other side of the door.

I took a deep breath.

It's now or never, Andrew, I told myself.

I opened the door and entered the room, Enoch looking up from his desk at me as I walked in.

"What is it, Smith?" he asked.

That's when he noticed the folder in my hand.

"What have you got there, Smith?" he asked, this time with noticeable suspicion in his voice.

I summoned the boldest voice that I could and spoke.

"I'm leaving, Mr. Enoch. I'm getting out. I am out."

"Mr. Smith, I believe that you're supposed to call me 'sir', not Mr. Enoch."

"I won't call you that anymore. I'm quitting!"

"Oh? Are you, now? What have you got there?" he asked for a second time.

I held up the folder for him to see.

"I printed off lab reports, scientific data, journal entries, research guidelines, experiment reports and I've saved tons of archived footage to this flash drive. I'm going to turn it into the police and they'll have no choice but to investigate you! I'm making sure that your company will be shut down after everything you and your bastard uncle have done!"

He chuckled as he got up.

"Really?" he asked as he slowly approached. "Do you really think that will work?"

I turned and hurried out of the room before he could get any closer. I walked hastily toward the stairwell and it wasn't long before I heard Mr. Enoch's footsteps behind me.

"Mr. Smith! You stop right there, now!"

I didn't stop. I walked through the door and out onto the platform that came before the stairwell, where Mr. Enoch quickly joined me. For some reason, I turned to face him as he approached. He put his hand on my shoulder as he spoke.

"You're not quitting, Mr. Smith!"

"I'm not? Oh, yes I am!"

"No, you're not. You're not quitting—"

Squelch!

I felt my breath hitch in my throat as a warm feeling spread through my abdomen. I looked down to see the pocket knife that now had its blade buried in my abdomen. I had failed to notice him putting his free hand behind his back.

Enoch

"—because you're fired!"

After I stabbed him in the abdomen, Mr. Smith eventually dropped the manilla folder onto the floor, spilling all of the papers at our feet. He looked me in the eye, as if struggling to say something. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't have the chance to say anything. I kicked him in the upper chest, sending him down the stairs to the next platform. Once he settled on the platform at the bottom of the stairs, he no longer moved. I didn't bother heading down the stairs to retrieve my pocket knife, I didn't care about that.

"What a fucking idiot." I muttered as I bent down to clean up the mess of files that he had left behind. "All he had to do was not talk to me and he would have gotten away with it!"

Once I had gotten all of the papers back into the manilla folder, I stood back up and left the stairwell.

"I won't send these papers to the shredder. Yet." I said as I walked back to my office. "Once midnight hits and Tennyson is exposed, I'll shred them while I drink some of the vintage wine that I keep in my fridge."

Epilogue 2

Clancy

The Higher Floors – The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters

I crawled on the ceiling up on one of the higher floors, heading toward a group of six guards that had yet to notice me. I came to a stop and let out a hiss. All of them turned in my direction and freaked out as they looked up to see me.

"What the hell is that?!" one of them shouted as I dropped down from the ceiling.

I sprinted toward them as they began firing on me, the laser burns barely doing anything to me. When I reached them, I picked one of them up and threw him through a glass window, completely shattering it. I turned to the others and slowly approached as they kept firing.

"You're wasting your time!" I said in a menacing tone.

They kept firing anyway and as I got closer, I put my arm out a bit and a rope with a pointy end shot out, embedding itself into one of the guards' heads. He went limp as the rope retracted itself.

Two down, four to go.

I pulled the rope back which reformed back into my arm. I forced talons with both of my hands and sprinted toward them. When I reached them, I put my talons through one of the guards and pulled him apart, splattering blood on the floor, walls and ceiling. All of a sudden, I heard rapid footsteps behind me. I turned around to see the guard that I had just tossed through the door, his cheek bleeding, as he held a sawn off double barreled shotgun.

"Payback time!" he exclaimed as he loaded it and pointed it at him.

I chuckled as I approached him, only stopping when I was a few feet away from him.

"What are you going to do, little one? Shoot…"

Male Forever Knight Guard

I fired the first shell, which blew a hole through the monster's abdomen. I aimed for his head next and fired the second shell. Both shots cleared some of the bugs from the monsters body, revealing the shape of a man beneath. As for that second shot, it blew off the upper left portion of his head, revealing bits of brain and bone beneath. He didn't remain on his feet for long and eventually fell over onto his back, dead.

"Williams! You son of a bitch!"

I turned around to look at the other guards, who all looked to be in a better mood than they had been seconds ago.

"You got him!"

I chuckled, as I heard something from behind me. I paid it no attention. It was just the monster dying, it was fine.

"I guess I did, didn't I?"

But they weren't smiling and grinning anymore. They now looked frightened with looks of terror in their eyes.

"What?" I asked.

None of them responded, as I continued hearing noises from behind me. Gooey sounding noises. I turned around and was presented with a terrifying sight.

"What the hell?" the words tumbled out of my mouth.

The monster had gotten back up, even after having his stomach and part of his brains blown out. His abdomen was rapidly healing, as well as slowly being covered by bugs again. He grabbed me by the neck and picked me up, giving me a view of his brains, skull and skin tissue, as well as hair regenerating in grotesque detail.

"Heck of a thing, ain't it?" he asked. "Sure as shit beats the hell out of dying!"

Clancy

I tossed the guard who had shot me backwards into one of the other guards. As they all tried to get away, I stalked closer.

"You're Forever Knights have given me a gift, and this gift is with me always!"

They began firing their laser arms at me, with little effect.

"Which in a word means, you're fucked!"

I approached the guard I had just thrown across the hall and hunched down to grab ahold of him. I put my hands around his head and applied great pressure. After several seconds, I felt his skull collapse in on itself and he stopped moving forever.

Three down, three to go.

I looked up, to see that one of them was running. I stood up.

"Where the hell do you think you're going to, boy?" I asked as I stretched out my arm, forming a rope.

I sent it out and it wrapped around his ankle, tripping him up and sending him to the floor. I pulled him back over to me and held him slightly above the floor. I readied my hand and put it through his abdomen, crushing his spinal cord in my hand only seconds later. I tossed his body aside and looked at the last two remaining.

"So? Who's next?"

One of them got up without warning and tried to throw a punch at me. I stopped him in his tracks by grabbing his fist out of the air and squeezing down hard on it.

"Fair enough."

I hunched down and formed talons with my free hand once more. I moved my hand forward and buried three of my talons into his eyes and mouth respectively. I dropped him and turned to the final guard.

"What the hell are you?" he asked with fear as I picked him up by the throat.

"Let's just say that I'm Frankenstein's monster." I replied as he struggled in my grip. "And I'm looking for my creator."

I then snapped his neck and tossed him aside, before continuing on my path.

Epilogue Three

Ken Tennyson

Frank and Natalie Tennyson's House

The Not Too Distant Future

I stood up from the couch in my parents' living room, as I began to hear something. I heard some cackling in the room, but I couldn't determine its source. I looked around me, as the cackling continued. After a few more seconds it stopped, leaving me just standing there.

What the hell was that?

I felt myself shudder as I moved into the kitchen, trying my best to forget what had just happened.

Author's Note:

* And so, here we are. Two and a half years down the line and we're at the end of Volume Two. To all of those who have read this story and to the very few (I feel like there are very few) of you who have stuck around since the first chapter of this volume, I want to say thank you. I also want to thank my friend and beta reader annihalator2015. Without your help, this chapter wouldn't exist. Not to mention that the help you've given me since you came on the project in late 2018 has been invaluable. I cannot thank you enough for your help.

* So, I don't like having to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I'm taking a break. I am taking a bit of a break from this story. In December of 2019, I became very unhappy with writing stories on this site. I was no longer enthusiastic about writing on here and I didn't even want to particularly do it anymore, but I forced myself to continue, because I felt like quitting wasn't an option.

* Granted, I'm not unhappy with writing on here anymore, thanks to finding a new passion in my new Ben 10: Ultimate Alien story. Please, go check that out if you want to read a very different Ben 10 story. I will be updating for that story while I begin developing and continue to develop Volume Three. And for those of you who have been wondering about it, the sequel to this story will be called: Ben 10: Bride To Be: Volume Three.

* That's about all I can say. I've said what I needed to say. With that done, thanks for reading. I'm going to go though, so have a fantastic day and bye.

Next Chapter: In the beginning of Volume Three, we'll catch up with the main cast a period of time after the raid has ended. We will see the events of the raid through flashbacks while seeing how they adjust to life in a world without the Forever Knights.