Allen never thought he'd see those two again. Julie and Cooper had the same bewildered looks on their faces seeing their old friends.
"Gwen, are you sure we can trust them? I mean they cut us off for the Plumbers," Cooper called out.
"Gwen asked us to infiltrate the organization and keep an eye on things," Manny defended.
Cooper wasn't sold on this piece of information and neither was Julie. Allen was the most skeptical about everything. Manny and Helen stopped talking to him after they joined the Plumbers and he was completely heartbroken by it. Was Gwen behind them cutting their ties with him? Why couldn't they tell him? They didn't understand how much he suffered after they went their separate ways.
"Like Hope said, this isn't the time to ask questions. We're burning daylight."
Gwen ordered everyone into their teams and told them to prepare for departure in the next 20 minutes. Everyone was split up into three main groups: infiltration, distraction, and support. Gwen was leader of infiltration, Manny and Helen commanded the distraction squad, and Tetrax was in charge of support. Charmcaster had a different objective so she wasn't included in the group, but Gwen wanted her to check in with support every 30 minutes. Tetrax's team was responsible for keeping tabs on all team members along with providing stable communication on the also had backup man-power to help any of the other groups. Distraction team had the simple, yet dangerous job of drawing all security forces away from the main building; while Gwen and her team tracked down the panel leader.
The distraction team would be traveling by ground and the others would be flying into two seperate locations; one to drop off the infiltration unit and then falling back to a safe location. Gwen's team consisted of only her and Hera, while Manny and Helen had Lucy and Allen, Tetrax was given Cooper, Julie, and Paradox. The teams were small but it was all they could afford right now. Gwen entered the talkative room with her teammate in tow, everyone noticed her presence and quickly hushed up.
"We split up but we're all part of one team and together we'll accomplish our goals. I want us to be watching each other's back out there, so put aside any drama and beef you might have with each other. Remember that this is to prevent a war."
Everyone nodded in agreement. The stakes here were high and nobody wanted to mess that up.
"Let's do this!" Gwen yelled confidently.
"HELL YEAH! I'M FIRED UP!" Cooper shouted while pumping his fist.
The room erupted into laughter at the blonde's giddiness, it helped lighten the mood a bit. The teams grabbed their respective gear and strolled out to their vehicles. Tetrax had gotten them an old decommissioned Plumber paddy wagon for the distraction unit to use, while he piloted his ship with the teams would be coming from different directions to keep the suspicion minimal. Everyone was silent but their minds were moving a million miles a minute with their own thoughts.
Cooper clenched the seat arm tightly as he tried to calm himself down. That was her! He yelled internally. He's been waiting for that moment ever since Max Tennyson's funeral where he heard from Gwen herself who delivered the grave news. The blonde could only assume that they would be working together in some way, so all he needed to do was wait. Finally he would get his chance at ending the woman responsible for sending that monster to his house that night. That traitor sold them out for Vilgax but he didn't care about that. No, the only thing he cared about was the rotting corpse of his mother laying in a hole. Cooper was willing to bet that she hasn't even realized the crime she committed but she will. He glanced down at the truck as it curved towards a gated entrance. You better not die here.
Ben patrolled around the building with Carly, he was tired of walking around the same hallways. The board members were needed at world government councils for diplomatic reasons and they refused to leave without proper security. Blink and King went with Prescott, while Aidan and Horus traveled with William. Leader Miller stayed behind to command the troops across the globe and galaxy. That left Commander Rick and Ruby escorting Miller while Ben was forced to roam. A beep alerted him to a text and he checked out the message from an unknown number. Come to the statue, you know which one- Hope. Ben glanced around before slipping the phone back in his pocket.
"Hey Carly, I'm gonna be right back. Stay here."
"What? Where are you going-" she tried asking.
Big Chill had already taken off and phased through the roof in the direction of the statue.
"I'll never understand him," Carly sighed.
A distant explosion shook the building and alarms started blaring. People started rushing around just like at HQ but Carly didn't plan on being useless again. She pointed staff in the direction of emergency exits and began to patrol the halls with her service pistol out. Building security had already rushed outside to confront whatever the threat was. Carly refused to believe the same person was attacking them again but she was ready for anything at the moment. The agent noticed two women moving back toward the offices instead of escaping like the rest. She followed them until her suspicions were confirmed. They were heading in the direction of panel leader Miller. Carly fired several warning shots into the wall parallel to the suspects and stopped them in their tracks. Agent Jetson recognized one of the intruders as Gwen Tennyson. She noticed the taller girl whispered something to the redhead and Gwen took off through a doorway.
"I would do the whole 'you're under arrest' spiel but I have a feeling you don't want to hear that. Well that makes two of us cause right now I just want answers," Carly announced.
"Ma'am, take it from me when I say you don't want this fight," Hera spoke calmly.
"Oh I want all the smoke, bitch."
Carly fired off several shots that were blocked by the spinning of Hera's hammer. The heroine ducked behind a pillar before Carly pulled the trigger again. Hera used her weapon to sweep the base of stone from underneath and kicked the free-falling pillar towards Carly. The agent spun to her right to avoid the debris and took aim with her pistol, but her opponent had disappeared in the split second that her vision was blocked. She scanned her surroundings for surprise attacks but it never came.
"Coward," Carly insulted as she sucked her teeth.
The agent remembered the other girl heading towards the board meeting room and headed after them. She won't pull any punches this time.
Ben stood 20 feet away from Hope, but neither of them said anything; in fact it was an intense staring contest between the two. The sound of explosions and gunfire was heard in the distance.
"You shouldn't be here," he coaxed, breaking the silence.
"I could say the same to you."
"You're fighting a losing battle."
"Not if you're on our side."
"If this is another attempt to turn me then you're wasting your time. Now if you excuse me I have a job to do. This is your last chance, leave now."
Ben turned around and began to walk in the direction of fighting with the intention of crushing the resistance one and for all. The agent noticed a pink bubble form around him, stopping him from moving any further.
"You have a job to do? I guess that makes two of us."
"What do you think you're doing?" Ben growled.
"What I have to."
The shield shattered as Ben transformed into Four-Arms with a bellowing roar of frustration. He charged the sorceress with a growl, only for him to be pushed back by a magic blast. Smoke was coming off the red skin of Four-Arms and Ben gritted his teeth through the stinging pain from the attack.
"Bring out Chromastone like you'd do with Gwen. Or do you think you don't need it for me? I'm just a crazy witch that you've beaten countless times after all, right?"
Ben ignored the woman and reached for the metal bench nearby, he ripped it in half and tossed the pieces at Charmcaster. The witch blew both projecticles out of the sky with a simple fire spell. She quickly put up a shield to block Ben's oncoming punch, the attack left a single crack in the defensive. A strong gust of wind picked the agent up and threw him backwards into the statue of George Washington.
"I'm not going to let you get close to me."
Ben groaned as he got to his feet and cracked his broad shoulders. She's right Ben told himself as they resumed their staring contest. This is the worst matchup for Four-Arms and yet he refused to switch. He gave them plenty of chances. The excuse of saving that transformation for Gwen popped in his mind. The unknown threat was at play here. It wasn't enough to convince himself that he didn't want to hurt Hope; he was tired of hurting the ones he cared about.
"Why can't you just leave me alone!" he shouted.
"The same reason you can't go all out against me," Hope yelled back. "I guess we're both stupid!"
The voice of his partner spoke over the radio comm in his ear telling him to return to the main building. She mentioned seeing his cousin heading for panel leader Miller's room. What is your plan, Gwen? He asked himself. Ben told Carly to wait for him but she didn't respond, meaning that she most likely ignored him. There were people on both sides that he cared about so he couldn't be selfish about what he wanted at the moment. Ben knew he had to think about the bigger picture; panel leader Miller's end goal.
Four-arms launched forward in a new show of speed. He was a blur to Charmcaster until he made contact with her shield that she put up last second. This time he was able to break through with four powerful hits from his arms. Hope wasn't prepared for the alien to destroy her defenses so easily. She jumped back to increase the distance as a fist grazed her cheek. It felt like a train just blew past her with how much force was behind that single attack. Hope reached into her bag and tossed several seeds at the ground, which quickly grew into massive green vines that wrapped around the alien's body. Ben ripped away at the rapidly climbing vines in anger. Charmcaster took this time to pull out specially marked brown balls, she whispered a quick incantation before dropping them. The balls grew into two 12 feet tall golems that stalked towards the restrained Ben.
Four-Arms tried to fend off the violent golems as he tore at the plants, but he suffered devastating blows to the face when he wasn't attending to the monsters. Ben couldn't let himself get completely tangled up in the thick vines, so he had to face a brutal beating from the golems. Charmcaster felt bad watching Ben be overwhelmed by her magic, but she couldn't give in until he was down.
"Just give up, Ben. You're not going to beat me. I'm sure Gwen is already knocking some sense into your boss. It won't be long before this whole Plumber thing is called off."
"You guys don't get it. Not you, not Gwen, not Max. This is bigger than the Plumbers, we're talking about saving the universe for the last time!"
Ben freed his legs and tackled one of the golems onto the ground and began to pummel it with everything he had. Four-Arms was being littered by punches from the second one but he only focused on the one underneath him. With a thunderous shout he smashed the golem's head to pieces and immediately spun around to engage the next. Bright pink lit up in the corner of his eye and he grabbed the golem before facing the sudden light. The golem was instantly incincreated by the magical beam and Ben rushed the sorceress at full speed with his fist cocked back.
A blue beam collided with the red alien and knocked him off his feet. Cooper landed in a huge 15 feet tall mech from the air. Mechanical parts whirled in the chrome suit and blue lights flashed on the body. The blonde marched over to Four-Arms until they were inches away from each other. Cooper's mech towered over the red alien and the man glanced down at Ben with a smirk.
"Elena says I watch too many superhero movies," Cooper started. "But I think 'Ben Buster' is a perfect name."
Ben raised an eyebrow at his old ally's corniness. He stared at the blonde's hardened facial features through the glass window. The younger man's eyes no longer had the electric blue color to them. A colder steel blue had taken their place. He had learned of his mom's fate after the war with Vilgax and sent his regards but never heard back from the kid.
"I got it from here, Charmcaster! Do what you gotta do," Cooper called out.
"Coop, I don't wanna do this," Ben muttered.
Cooper turned back towards Ben and said, "I do."
A single backhand from the mech sent Ben through the statue like a knife cutting butter. Four-Arms groaned as he stood back up in time to dodge Cooper slamming down. Ben rolled again to avoid the blue laser aimed at where his head was.
"Gwen would be pissed if you killed me."
"Unfortunately for you, the last person that cared about you just gave up on you."
"And I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Of course, because you're Ben the lone wolf, right? Fight solo and suffer alone. 'No-one understands me' type of asshole. 2014 called and they want their edgy bullshit back."
Ben threw a punch and Cooper caught it instantly, before pulling the alien closer and giving him a solid knee to the ribcage.
"You think you're gonna make a difference? You don't even have the balls to fight your enemies because they have a familiar face."
Cooper released his grip on the agent and took a couple steps back. He found this fight to be very uneventful and not a very good test of his 'Ben Buster' suit. The blonde noticed that Charmcaster disappeared after calling him here for backup. He thought he'd be greeted with an out-of-control Ben, not this sad sack.
"You don't see what I see. This universe is on a fast track to its own death and I can save it from continuous deterioration," Ben groaned as he stared at the ground on one knee.
"You sound like one of those Forever Knight freaks; do you even hear yourself right now? The Plumbers are causing so much misery and for what? A better future? At this point it'll never be a better future because everyone will always remember the horrible past."
Ben gritted his teeth at the scolding he was getting from an inexperienced child.
"You don't deserve that watch."
The mech was sent soaring into the air by Ben's surprise uppercut and landed 60 feet away.
"Watch your mouth," Ben muttered under his breath.
Cooper chuckled as a couple warning lights flickered inside his suit, and he pressed a series of buttons and picked himself up off the ground. He could only brace himself as he was batted away by a lamppost onto the battlefield between the distraction team and Plumber security forces. Ben dropped the twisted metal before launching himself into the air and slamming down on the paddy wagon.
"Oh great! Just what we need, a pissed off Ben Tennyson!" Manny shouted as he glanced up at their destroyed ride.
"I'll take care of him!"
Flame ignited under Ben Buster's feet and Cooper flying tackled the red alien. They grappled for a few seconds, and Ben rolled on top and fired a barrage of relentless punches at the glass mask. Panels shifted and exposed a hole in the center piece, blue light exploded from the chest cannon and blew Ben off the mech. Smoke rose off the burned skin of Four-Arms' body and Ben winced from the pain before reverting back to his human form.
"That's it?!" Cooper taunted the huffing Ben. "I can't believe I ever looked up to you."
Another flash of green went off and standing in Ben's place was Rath. The burly tiger alien growled menacingly and narrowed his eyes.
"You picked this guy? He's smaller than Four-Arms."
Cooper shrugged and raised his arm cannon for a final blast. Rath was a blur as he stabbed his claw into the mech's forearm and pointed the weapon into the air. Ben sliced the arm off in a swift motion and pushed Ben Buster off balance. Cooper tried to orientate himself but Ben was already behind him, locking the four thousand pound mech in a german suplex. Rath slipped from underneath and jumped on the back of the mech, then he slashed open the biggest panel and ripped the two pieces off. The alien ripped at internal wires like a mindless beast.
Cooper activated the chest and hand cannons to push himself off the ground into the sky. Ben held on and continued his vicious rampage. A well-placed slash cut through the thick tempered glass mask and narrowly missed the blonde's face. Cooper grabbed Rath by the scruff and threw him at the ground. Ben landed gracefully and sprung into several back handsprings to avoid the missiles aimed at him. A voice pulled Ben out of his silent rage.
"Ben! Panel Leader Miller isn't responding! I need your help!" Carly screamed into the radio.
Tennyson froze in place at the bit of information. He couldn't fathom that any of it was true. Rick and Ruby were supposed to protect him. Were they defeated too? Ben asked himself. He should've returned to the building when his partner asked him to. Miller was another person willing to make the hard decisions. He and Ben shared the same pipeline. Miller was the key to all of this, if he dies then everything would be for naught.
"Not paying attention during a fight? What happened to Ben Tennyson?" Cooper taunted as he swooped down for a sucker punch.
The mech crashed into the ground hitting nothing. Ben had transformed into Fast-Track and was already halfway towards the building. Cooper laughed when he saw the speedster zoom away.
"Coward!"
Ben rocketed up the five sets of stairs and stopped in front of the boardroom. The tornado of war had torn through this place. Broken desks and cabinets littered the floor, walls were filled with bullets or covered in scorch marks, embers ate away at piles of rubble. Fast-Track walked through the doorway and saw Carly lying over a bloody Miller. No sign of anyone else; friend or foe. Agent Tennyson reverted back to human and kneeled beside his teary-eyed partner. Ben knew it was too late for a med-evac.
"Why didn't you come?"
Ben stayed silent with his head down.
"I called for you! Why didn't you come?"
"Carly I-"
"Don't blame the boy for this. He already has enough problems," Miller wheezed.
"I'm sorry," Ben choked out.
"No need to apologize. It took me this long to realize people aren't ready to accept a peaceful universe. I'm sorry about your grandfather," Miller said slowly.
Those were the last words of panel leader Michael Miller. Tears didn't appear in Ben's eyes, in fact he felt no emotion. Everything was empty.
"What happened?"
**PAGE BREAK**
Carly reloaded her weapon and chased after Gwen. She ducked in and out of hallways searching for the redhead. Instead she found another ginger-haired woman leaning against a wall and puffing on a cigarette.
"Agent Ruby? What are you doing here? We're being attacked!" Carly yelled at the nonchalant girl. "Didn't you see the intruders run past here?"
"I did."
"And you just let them pass?! What-"
"Relax blondie, don't get your panties in a bunch. Commander Rick has it under control."
Carly scoffed and was about to run past her when Ruby grabbed her shoulder.
"Did you not hear wha-"
Carly spun around with her gun barrel pointed at the agent's face. The blonde was quickly becoming irritated with everyone's shiftiness. She was always suspicious of the black ops team and their motives, but lately they've become obviously shady. Their actions fail to represent the Plumber organization. It was a heinous violation to threaten a high-ranking agent. She didn't care though, and she'll get to the bottom of everything.
Ruby raised an eyebrow at the woman's actions, but complied and backed away slowly. Carly kept the weapon pointed at her as she back-pedaled before turning to sprint around the corner. Ruby sucked her teeth when she disappeared, then flicked her cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on the small embers.
"Great," she scoffed and vanished in a puff of fiery smoke.
Carly heard voices as she moved further down the hall. Three of them were familiar and she recognized one as Gwen Tennyson's. The agent slowed down to approach the door in silence and she peeked through the small glass door window. She saw Miller, Rick and Gwen standing at a long table, she could feel the tension between them from a mile away. She pushed the door open and pointed her weapon at Gwen; to everyone's shock.
"Freeze! Don't move!" Carly yelled at the redhead.
"Well I believe this is a proper ending to our conversation, Miss Tennyson. And as for you panel leader, you are relieved of duty," Commander Rick prompted.
Carly didn't understand what he meant by "relieved of duty" until two shots rang out and within a second Miller had fallen onto the ground. She looked at Rick's smoking sidearm in disbelief. Carly eventually got over her initial shock and aimed her pistol at Rick.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you unless you want Ben to die a very agonizing death," the black ops captain declared.
Four years ago she'd put two holes in his face for shooting an officer, regardless of the threat to another agent. She pledged her life to the Plumbers and would make decisions based on the benefit of the organization. So she couldn't understand why she couldn't pull the trigger when presented with Ben's death. Carly slowly lowered her weapon along with her head.
"That's a good soldier," Rick mocked.
The captain was fiddling with some equipment on the table and Carly saw a flash of gold when he closed the weapons case. Rick left the room without another word, leaving the girls in silence. Carly rushed over to the leader and began to perform first aid on Miller. Gwen stepped over to the blonde woman with the intention of helping.
"Just leave,"
"I can help-"
JUST GO!" Carly screamed. "Before Ben gets here."
Gwen ran out of the room hearing Carly call for help over comms.
(Several minutes before Carly came into the room)
Gwen walked into the seemingly empty room with Hera in tow. Two people were standing on opposite ends of a table. She recognized one of the men to be panel leader Miller with a particularly grim expression on his face.
"Hello Gwendolyn," the other man greeted. "I'm Commander Rick and I'm quite happy to see you."
His voice only made the redhead's skin crawl and the duo stood on guard for any surprise attacks. A silver weapons case sat on the table in front of Rick and Gwen sensed large amounts of energy coming from it. Maybe she won't be able to talk after all. The sorceress' hands glowed pink and Hera spun her hammer in a threatening fashion.
"I'm only here to engage in conversation, isn't that what you're here for? To talk?" he coaxed, putting his hands up.
Gwen nodded for him to continue but the man only chuckled in response.
"No, see, trust works both ways. I am unarmed with no-one else in the room so I would expect all parties to do the same."
"As if I'd ever trust a creep like you. I suggest you say what you wanna say before you become a stain on the wall," Gwen threatened. "My beef isn't with you after all. It's with your boss."
Rick sighed deeply as he unclipped the case slowly and a shining light lit up his scarred face when he opened it. He revealed the contents of the case to be a golden glove. A very familiar one. Gwen widened her eyes at the gauntlet that Vilgax previously wielded being slipped onto Rick's hand.
"I had some adjustments made to it and it isn't as powerful as it originally was. But this baby still got enough juice to level a town, so I wouldn't make any sudden movements unless you want to skip negotiations."
"You think that scares us?" Hera laughed while gripping her hammer tighter.
"Hera, go back to the ship. I'll be there soon."
"What? No, I'm not going to leave you with these people."
"Please? For me? I promise I won't do anything crazy."
Hera finally relented and hugged her friend before turning to Rick and giving him her best death stare.
"You hurt her and not even that fancy glove will save you from my wrath."
When Gwen was alone with the two Plumbers; the tone of the atmosphere changed and Miller spoke up for the first time.
"Captain Rick, what is the meaning of this-"
"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, sir," he laughed. "I do what's in the best interest of the Plumbers and it has come to my attention that you haven't been following the same guidelines."
"And what makes you say that?"
"For starters when you recruited Ben Tennyson into my team without my say or giving up top secret information to the same child that wants us dead?"
"Tennyson has come to understand the sacrifices that are needed to be made; the boy has changed."
"And that gives him the right to disrupt my work?"
Miller was unsure of what to say so he kept quiet.
"That doesn't matter anymore I suppose," Rick decided. "Gwendolyn, I would like to make a deal. Panel leader Miller's objectives do not align with the Plumbers anymore. So, I will give you Ben Tennyson and Earth's freedom from the Plumbers."
"In exchange for what?" she asked suspiciously.
"You take the blame for Miller's death. Sure you'll be labeled as a dangerous criminal by the Plumbers, but don't expect us to look too hard for you."
"What's the catch?" Gwen asked.
"No catch. I get two nuisances out of my hair and you get your cousin and Earth's freedom back. You'd be painted as a hero by your entire planet-"
"No."
"No?"
"I'm not worried about Ben and I'm definitely not taking the blame for your crimes."
"That's all the reasoning you have for not taking my offer? And I thought Ben was the stupid one; he'd take that deal in a heartbeat if the roles were reversed."
"Then you don't know Ben like I do."
"And just in time too," Rick commented, ignoring the woman.
Gwen didn't know what he was talking about until he heard a female scream "freeze" from the door. Was he just stalling for reinforcements? Was all that about killing Miller and the deal just a lie? She asked herself.
The redhead was reliving the entire scene in her head on the ship. Nobody was talking after Gwen explained to them about what happened in the meeting room. Tetrax was the only one who didn't seem surprised, even telling us that there have been prior betrayals in the hierarchy. Hera kept shooting her worried glances and Gwen gave her a smile to assure her that everything was okay. Miller was dead and she had no clue what that meant going forward. She went there for the scoop on their future plans and left there even more confused. All she knew was Ben and Rick didn't like each other; that made the redhead nervous for her cousin's wellbeing.
Ben mourned over the body of Michael Miller for several minutes. He tried to ignore the sounds of muffled voices and shuffling feet, but got concerned with the possibility of another attack. He ran out of the room in search of all the noise but noticed it was coming from outside. Ben rushed out of the building to be quickly surrounded by armed soldiers and armored trucks. Helicopters circled the rooftops for any intruders, while agents stormed the inside.
"There he is!" someone yelled.
Ben was tackled promptly and forced into handcuffs. He tried to resist but the weight of several soldiers was too much for him.
"What are you doing?!" he shouted at the men.
A metal collar closed over his neck and a brace was placed on his watch to prevent it from being used. He was yanked onto his feet and moved toward a landed ship; where Rick and his team were waiting.
"Ooouuu! You really did it now!" Aidan laughed.
"Rick, what the fuck is the meaning-"
Ben was interrupted by a gut punch from a teary eyed Blink.
"Shut the fuck up, meatbag!" she snarled.
"After all the old man did for you; you killed him in cold blood," King barked.
"Where's that partner of his? I wanna fry her on the grill for this!" Aidan sneered.
"She had nothing to do with this. The soldier was strung along by a manipulative leader and she won't be punished for following orders. In fact, I believe she didn't even know about his schemes until it was too late," Rick declared. "Isn't that right, Agent Jetson?"
The group glanced over at the blonde but she could only look at Ben's distraught face with her unsettled one. She didn't say yes or no, but the evidence was damning. Carly couldn't bear to look at Ben anymore with her knowing the truth, but not being able to say a damn thing. If she spoke up then Ben would be killed and she couldn't afford that.
"Ben Tennyson, you are being arrested for the murder of panel leader Michael Miller."