The Ones Who Bump Back:
Pathos:
Pt. 6.
Chapter Six: Snuff Out the Light.
Ben Tennyson felt like a truck hit him. His body positively stung in agony! He trembled as he did everything he could to recover, as a ringing pounded in his head!
"Be-Ben? Y-you're hurting me," he heard a small voice say. He managed to open his eyes, as he looked down to see Hinami clutched in his arms. Apparently he had been trying to shield her with his body.
"Oh, sorry," he said. "I was... I blacked out there for a second."
"It's okay," Hinami replied. "I... I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
Ben smiled weakly. "It's okay," he said. "You did great back there." That made Hinami smile in turn.
Ben let her go gently, standing up to survey the damage of Darkstar's attack. A giant circle of ash was left behind where Darkstar had once been standing. The Philosopher's Stone, now sufficiently drained and no longer glowing, had been jammed into a wall. Chunks of buildings had been blown off, or were set on fire, and dozens of people were out to look upon the incident and help those that had been hurt.
"How..." Ben said. "How did we survive?" He asked this as he looked at nearby cars, which had been melted or had chunks blown off them as well.
"You have me to thank for that," Ben heard Danny say. He looked nearby, and saw Danny was standing next to him, in human form. Not far away, the girls and Jake appeared to be recovering from their own bout as well.
"We managed to knock out those zombies and came running," Danny said. "The only shame is the fact that we were too late to stop Darkstar. But when we saw you guys in danger I threw up some forcefields to... protect us~"
A nosebleed appeared on Danny's face as he fell over backwards! Clearly protecting everyone from that explosion of energy took a lot out of him. "Uh..." Ben said. "Why don't you take a load off?" That elicited a thumbs up from the ghost boy.
Ben walked over to the others, hoping to check up on them. "How's everyone doing?" he asked.
"I feel like a puppy that was raped by a bulldozer," Touka said.
"But other than that," Annabeth replied, "we're just peachy."
"Dude," Jake said, pointing at Ben as he still lay on his back, staring up at the sky, "you need to get some easier villains to fight. That guy left me feeling like a raisin."
"Yeah, Michael has that affect on people," Ben said. "But we can worry about that later. We got a walking Philosopher's Stone out there right now, so we gotta find him and stop him before he does who knows what with that amount of energy. So who's with me?"
Everyone else merely moaned in ehxaustion. Ben let his arms slump over in defeat as he looked at his monstrous companions. "Uh, Ben?" Hinami said, tugging on his jacket, "it doesn't look like they're gonna be helping."
"Yeah, that's become increasingly clear to me," Ben replied.
"Could you at least give us a minute to recover?" Touka asked. She promptly rolled over onto her stomach, face first in the road, waving a hand at him as if she were a stubborn kid not wanting to get out of bed. "We'll find your bad guy once we've recovered enough to breathe."
Ben was not taking this, however, as he walked over to Touka and planted a foot directly on her butt. She yelpped in surprise, glaring at him with a ferocious look! "Tennyson!" she shrieked. "Get your foot off of my ass!"
"Not until you agree to help me catch Michael. Now!" Ben replied. Annabeth and Jake couldn't help but snicker immaturely at the exchange going on at the moment.
"If you don't move your foot," Touka said, "the only thing you're gonna be catching, is a spike directly in your dick!"
"So you do have some energy in there," Ben said smugly, promptly moving before the ghoul he was messing with could retaliate.
Touka was left spluttering and growling in exasperation, Hinami laughing at her expense. Not far away, Ben caught sight of Moka, who was not moving as she lay on the road. "Hey guys," he said, "is... is Moka going to be okay?"
"Hm?" Annabeth asked. She looked at the vampire in question, rolling her over and looking at her face. "Moka," she said, "can you hear me?"
"She's been pretty exhausted today," Jake said, trying to help sit Moka up. "It's not like she isn't a trained figther, but today in addition to being tied down by poisonous flowers for several minutes and drenched in water just before, she exhausted whatever yoki she had to take down Hex, and she hasn't drank any blood today save for... well, me not long before we met up with you guys!"
"Will she be okay?" Ben asked.
"She'll be fine," Annabeth replied. "But right now we just need to wake her up so she can feed. Moka, wake up!"
After getting knocked out by what felt like the sun itself, Moka found herself able to feel the blood in the air around her. The flowing essence of power that was pumped through the bodies of every living creature. She could smell it. It was insatiable!
She could hear somebody nearby, but their voice sounded far away. Their attempts to get her attention were in vain as their touches were reduced to mere pricks against her skin. The smell of the blood and the feeling of it in the air was all there was to her. Even her vision was obscured by an absolute wall of red, her eyes being pulled to whatever source of blood she could find, but it was absolutely everywhere!
It was getting to be too much! If she didn't stop now she'd be reduced to a mere animal! But that wasn't her at all. She was a monster. A proud creature. A vampire.
But she could already feel her body losing control. The skin and very muscles along her eyebrows, cheeks, and lips were peeled back, jutting out her eyes and perpetually baring her fangs! Her ears pointed outward, as her body turned cold, her skin must have been turning bleached white!
Finally, she could feel it right in front of her. As if a - had been presented to her. It flipped a switch inside of her, allowing her to promptly bite down upon the neck of whatever unfortunate creature had let themselves in the presence of the hungry vampiress!
From the moment the first bits of blood entered her system she soon regained awareness of the world around her. Her body regained its normal shape too as she felt her vision fully restore. That's when she realized what she was biting was not in fact a neck, but an arm. And it was the arm that belonged to Annabeth.
"H-hey Moka," she said, sounding weak. "Good to see you're back. Just keep going. I can keep this up all day if I have to." As if to confirm that she was fine, she stroked Moka's silvery-pink hair gently.
Nearby, Ben was staring at his vampiric companion with a look of abject horror on his face! "What... the hell... was that?" he asked.
"That," Touka replied, standing right beside him, "was a vampire when they have become deprived of blood. Not a pretty sight."
"Well no shit!" Ben replied, throwing an arm in the air!
As if responding to the commentary, a loud 'pop!' was heard. The hero, ghoul, and neighboring dragon all looked to see Moka get to her feet, wiping the distinctive red from her mouth. "S-sorry," she said, somewhat cringing at their comments. "I... I try not to let that happen."
"Don't worry about it," Ben replied. "Now then, with all of us awake..." He turned to Danny, who was the only one still on the ground. "Well, most of us," he added, "let's get to work on trying to stop Darkstar!"
"Ben," Annabeth said, "even if we're all awake, we're exhausted! Do you really think we're going to be able to fight Darkstar in our condition, especially now that he's superpowered?"
"We have to," Ben replied certainly. "Because right now I'm afraid we might be the only ones who can fight him. And so long as we can still stand up, we have to at least try."
"But how?" Jake asked. "How do you think we fight him?"
"Well," Ben replied, "considering the twinkie analogy from before, we now know he's got enough energy at his disposal to turn this entire city into a crater. So we have to do what we normally do in a situation like this when it comes to Darkstar, and find a way to drain his battery."
"But how do we do that?" Annabeth asked. "Even if we fought him for hours, it'd take an eternity for him to actually use up the energy from the Philosopher's Stone."
"There has to be a way to do it faster," Jake said.
"The only way to conceivably do that," Touka said, "is to transfer the energy back into the Philosopher's Stone."
"Do you have an idea of how to do that?" Moka asked.
Ben smiled in delight. "I do," he said.
Finding Darkstar was not hard whatsoever. He left a path of drained bodies everywhere behind him. None of them got back up as the group continued running, since Darkstar probably didn't see any reason to use the army of controlled victims any longer When they found Darkstar himself, it had become rather apparent that he was even more powerful than they had thought.
He was floating twenty feet in the air, arms tucked casually behind his back within a sphere of golden light about ten feet in diameter. Whips of golden energy were flowing off of his body, snagging onto whatever poor soul was in his path, draining them in a moment's notice! He didn't even need to move to drain whatever person was in his way!
"Remember the plan everybody," Ben said. "Moka, Danny, and I will be the ones to get in his way. The rest of you act as support if there is no other way. You're all the most likely to get taken out first. No offense."
"None taken," Touka said, positioning her Rabbit mask over her face. "Just save a few shots for me."
"Okay team," Ben said, "it's hero time!"
Ben transformed into Cannonbolt, before promptly turning into Ultimate Cannonbolt, launching himself straight at Darkstar! However, he promptly bounced off of Darkstar's energy shield, only managing to knock Darkstar aside, still hovering about five feet in the air! Darkstar held out a hand to Ultimate Cannonbolt, sending a beam of energy that blew him right into a rooftop!
Ultimate Cannonbolt pushed himself back up, his armored plating deflecting the energy blast! "Well, Benjy," Darkstar said, floating up to the roof, "I must say, I'm flattered you jumped straight to your ultimate transformation. For whatever good it does you when you are facing the power of a god."
Ultimate Cannonbolt launched himself right back at Darkstar, opening up and slamming a punch against the shield, sending the villain back towards the ground! The enhanced Arburian Pelarota landed on top of him, sending Darkstar into the road. Darkstar rose back to the air, firing another beam of energy that overtook Ultimate Cannonbolt's body, blasting his unprotected skin and sending him away in a smoking wreck!
"Sorry to disappoint you, Benjy," Darkstar said, "but even your evolved form cannot break through my energy shield."
"Since… when do gods…" Cannonbolt said, standing back up, "need energy shields?"
Darkstar looked baffled for a moment, before he merely held out a hand, palm aimed upward, and caused the very road beneath Ultimate Cannonbolt to explode! Before he could fully soak in his victory, watching as Ultimate Cannonbolt fell away, Danny flew right into the shield, attempting to phase through it! Only, to his disappointment, it didn't work and he just slammed against the sphere of energy, sliding off of it. Darkstar grabbed Danny in an energy tendril and tossed him right back towards the rest of the group, who were hiding in an alleyway, sliding across the sidewalk on his face!
"Did you really think that'd work?" Touka asked.
"Well," Danny replied, "I could have hoped, right?" He jumped comically in the air, just as another wave of energy was shot in his direction!
Danny fired off a beam of his own Ecto-Energy at Darkstar, but to no avail. The attack merely connected with Darkstar's energy shield, before the villain sent his own wave of power that blasted Danny right into the distance, where he fell out of sight!
"Well Moka," Annabeth said. "I think now is as good a time as any to get that pink butt of yours in there."
"Right," Moka replied, nodding in agreeance. "Give me an opening."
Annabeth nodded, as she shot from the alleyway alongside Touka, with Jake flying after Darkstar in his dragon form! He tackled the villain from behind, surprising him momentarily, as he brought down hit after hit on the shield with his claws, before breathing a jet of fire! "Oh, the dragon," Darkstar said casually. "Did you think you could surprise me?"
With a wave of Darkstar's hand, Jake felt his energy getting drained from his system! "You dragons have power," he said, "but you are just like the rest. Merely a bag of mana that I may drain."
Jake screamed in pain, before getting utterly drained. He transformed back into his human form and got tossed aside by Darkstar. Ben saw Jake hit the ground, gaping at how he was drained of power almost instantaneously!
Darkstar laughed in delight! "Surprised, Tennyson?" he asked. "With both the Keystone of Bezel and the power of the Philosopher's Stone, I can drain you and your friends within seconds! Even a dragon!"
The next moment, Annabeth's dagger bounced off of Darkstar's energy shield. The villain turned, raising an eyebrow at that attempt. Touka, who was standing next to Annabeth, turned her head to the Half-Blood.
"Did you think that would work?" Touka asked. "Well," Annabeth replied, "I… I hoped that celestial bronze would get through."
Darkstar casually hovered down in front of them. "I must admit," he said, "I'm entertained by watching the both of you try to fight me when neither of you have anything you could do to me. But I must ask, what do you intend to do?"
"Not us," Touka said, "her."
It was there that Moka made her move. She ran at Darkstar from behind, jumping up and delivering a roundhouse kick that sent the villain flying! With his spherical energy shield, he bounced off of the walls of buildings, before connecting with the ground and going into a roll!
Using her incredible speed, Moka ran over and delivered a massive kick that sent Darkstar right into the air! She leapt after him, sending another kick that blew Darkstar back towards the ground! He connected with a building and stuck there, as Moka came back down and delivered a judo chop that drove him right back towards the ground!
Darkstar shook his head as Moka landed on top of his shield, kicking straight onto it, attempting to break through! Darkstar held out a hand, blasting Moka off her feet, parts of her clothes now either partially burnt or shredded!
"You're no better than your friends, vampire," Darkstar said. "Even the power of a vampire is minuscule compared to me now! Fighting me is pitiful!"
A storm of spikes from Touka's Ukaku nailed the back of Darkstar's energy field, causing him to turn back to her! "The only one here who's pitiful," Touka said, "is you!"
Before Darkstar could retaliate, a storm of diamonds added to the assault from the other side! Darkstar turned, seeing Diamondhead riding a large diamond that he promptly kicked towards the energy shield! The diamond crumpled against it, same with all the other attacks!
Darkstar fired an energy attack at Touka next, prompting the ghoul to shield herself with her hardened Kagune! The blast shattered her ghoul limb, sending her screaming in pain down the road!
Annabeth ran up alongside her, attempting to carry her to safety! She couldn't help but curse herself internally over the fact that she couldn't fight Darkstar herself due to his power being incredibly out of her league, and with her having no means to attack him! Diamondhead leapt in next to shield them, arms turned into diamond spikes that he brought against the energy field! Darkstar laughed as he sent a blast that overtook Diamondhead and sent him right into a wall!
Darkstar then casually hovered over to Annabeth and Touka, sending a blast close to their feet that sent them to the ground! Glowing energy reached out to them, ready to drain their power! Moka had recovered by this point, and seeing her friends in danger, she launched herself to Darkstar once again! She football tackled Darkstar aside, severing his connection, before following up by slashing at the shield with multiple chops and kicks! The energy vampire turned to the literal vampire, frowning at her continued attempts to stop him. "You've officially gone from amusing," he said, "to irksome."
Moka continued fighting the energy shield, as Darkstar hovered just over the road, blasting her with a draining attack, her mana - or yoki - getting sucked from her form! "Oh sure," Darkstar said, "you may have the power of a vampire, but all your great energy is mine!"
Jake helped Annabeth and Touka out of there, no longer able to maintain his dragon form! The three of them huddled in an alleyway, Jake the only one able to stand. "Guh, this sucks!" he said. "None of us are able to land a hit on him!"
"We just have to hope Ben's plan works," Touka said.
Diamondhead got back up next, and saw Darkstar continuing to battle Moka. Darkstar stopped draining her, and blasted her down the street with an explosive blast! "Unimportant woman," he said. "You're hardly worth my time."
Diamondhead pressed his Omnitrix emblem, transforming into Shocksquatch! The white yeti-like creature sent a blast of electricity from his mouth that hit Darkstar dead on! The villain turned to see Shocksquatch leap towards him and bash on the shield with electrified fists!
"That woman fights for this world as hard as any hero," he said. "You're dealing with my friends Darkstar and you will show them respect!"
With one more wave, Darkstar blasted Shocksquatch off the shield! Darkstar turned back to Moka, who was still struggling to stand. He then turned to the three huddled in the alleyway.
"Does anyone else have the strength to fight me?" he asked. His eyes rose to the tops of the buildings they were hiding between, firing an energy attack! Rubble fell down and collapsed on top of the group!
Shocksquatch growled angrily, as he fired more electricity that Darkstar merely blocked! He fired energy tendrils at the creature, pulling him towards the shield! Seeing Ben transform back into his human form, Darkstar pulled him through the energy field and grabbed Ben by the collar of his shirt.
"How does it feel, Benjy?" Darkstar asked. "To be totally beaten and disempowered, despite wearing the strongest device in the universe? Along with your allies having been bested by me."
"Well," Ben replied, "the thing is, I don't have anything to prove to you. Oh sure, you outsmarted me by sending me in the wrong direction. But now that I've had time to myself, I'm the one who's outsmarting you. Now Fenton!"
Suddenly, Danny appeared out of Ben's body, flying right for Darkstar shouting, "trick or treat, freak!" He flew into Darkstar's body, attempting to overshadow him! Darkstar held his head in pain, attempting to fight off the ghost to no avail!
Both he and Ben landed on the ground, the energy shield vanishing, as Ben reactivated the Omnitrix! "Hold him down, Danny!" he said. He transformed into Chromastone, putting a hand to Darkstar's chest. "We've got one shot at this!"
Touka knocked the rubble off her, Jake and Annabeth off, having protected them with her hardened Kagune. Moka managed to run over to the group, carrying the Philosopher's Stone on her back, placing it by Chromastone's feet. The four took a few steps back, as the Crystalsapien readied himself.
"Alright then," Chromastone said, "let's go Ultimate!" With his other hand, he transformed into a larger form of Chromastone. His face turned pure red, as his arms became large red crystals, with clawed fingers, rows of spines on the back of them. Large purple crystals dotted his shoulders, massive red crystals appearing on his back, and the horn on his head grew longer, with two more almost giving him a mohawk on his head.
"Now hold on Danny," he said. "Let's finish this!" He put his other hand over to the Philosopher's Stone, as energy began to flow in pure whiteness from Darkstar into Ultimate Chromastone's body!
However, Darkstar proved to not be out for the count just yet! "No!" he screamed! "No!" In an explosion, Ultimate Chromastone's hand that was holding him was knocked aside! To make matters worse, Danny came tumbling out of Darkstar's body, tendrils of gold holding him like a puppet!
In a manner of seconds, Danny transformed back to his human form, before getting dropped to the ground! Ultimate Chromastone held a hand to Darkstar, but the golden energy vampire held a hand out to him, causing the ground beneath his feet to explode! The evolved Crystalsapien rolled across the ground in a smoking heap, Darkstar laughing victoriously!
"You will not best me, Tennyson!" he said, taking back to the air. "Not when I've come so close to victory!" He aimed his head towards the rest of the group, grinning maniacally! "None of you shall best me."
Moka stood in front of the others, arms outstretched. "Leave them alone," she said. "You won't touch any of them!" "Oh please," Darkstar said. "Do you really think you have enough strength left to battle me?"
He sent her back in an explosion, knocking her into a wall that crumbled to dust around her! Annabeth and Touka locked eyes, as Jake ran over to protect them! Darkstar merely smiled as Jake tried transforming back into a dragon, only to get knocked around by Darkstar with minimal effort!
Back with the Half-Blood and the ghoul, Annabeth pulled down the shoulder of her shirt and pushed aside her bra-strap, exposing her whole shoulder. "What are you doing?" Touka asked.
"Bite me," Annabeth said. "Get a decent chunk out so you can regain your power."
Touka looked at Annabeth with a mildly impressed expression, before shrugging it off. "You already let Moka drain you earlier," she said. "Quit being so chivalrous."
"Touka, we need you to be strong!" Annabeth said. "You can fight him!"
"And I said," Touka said, "quit being chivalrous!"
Darkstar watched the exchange with mild interest. "You two do realize," he said, "that you were in the middle of fighting me?" He held out a hand, as two energy draining beams shot into the two of them! Holding up his other hand, Darkstar sent two more beams at Danny and Jake, draining both the ghost and dragon of what energy was left there!
"Okay..." Annabeth said to Touka, as her body began to wrinkle like a raisin! "Let's promise... no more arguing?"
"Deal," Touka replied.
Ultimate Chromastone had recovered by this point, and lifted his hand back up to attack! Darkstar caught sight of him, and sent an energy tendril out of his back! Ultimate Chromastone was unable to protect himself as the blast hit him square in the chest! Ultimate Chromastone found himself in some kind of an energy tug of war, struggling to keep his energy from being pulled out of his body, whilst simultaneously trying to take energy from Darkstar! Unfortunately, Darkstar proved himself an excellent multitasker, as not only was he able to continue this game, but succeeded in totally draining the rest of the team within a moment's notice, leaving them as withered husks on the ground!
Moka finished pushing herself from the rubble. She felt her energy reserves running low again and saw how Darkstar had been able to defeat her allies all at once! She took a deep breath, aware of one last trick she had up her sleeve. She just had to hope it'd work.
She walked forward dramatically, not looking at the desecrated bodies of her friends as she moved. Darkstar noticed her, smirking in delight as he held a hand out to her. "Ah yes," he said, "I nearly forgot about you, girl."
Before Darkstar could attack her, Moka had launched herself into the air and sucker-punched Darkstar right into a wall! Having been embedded upon it, he couldn't react before Moka had crawled up the wall and kicked him into the neighboring building! He slid across the wall, digging a trench in the side of it, before crashing into the sidewalk, Moka walking over to him once again!
Darkstar pushed himself back up on his hands and knees, sending another blast that drained more of Moka's power! But this time, she merely ran straight through it, punting Darkstar into the air! He slammed against a wall before he fell to the ground, groaning in pain!
Moka walked right over to him, only a few beads of sweat on her face. "How?" Darkstar asked. "How do you still have so much power?"
"Because," Moka replied, "I have a Wealth of Power." A red and black aura flared through Moka's body, as Darkstar found himself seeing dark colors in his eyes while looking into Moka's face!
"I was holding back my true strength," Moka said. "But you can take it, can't you big man? So now, I've officially stopped playing nice." In a burst of black and red, Moka transformed into something else. Her hair was totally silver once again, arms and legs now sheathed in black armor, a pair of large bat wings were on her back, and she was now adorned in a pure white dress.
"No…" Darkstar said. He held out a hand, but it was too late. In a blur of motion Moka came right up to him, delivering a roundhouse kick that sent Darkstar straight into the air!
Darkstar connected back with the road, as Moka ran over to him, grabbed him by the neck, and threw him into another building! Darkstar bounced off of that as well, before Moka kicked him to the air, leaping after him! Darkstar was screaming as Moka flew up to him, slamming him with punches across the cheeks, before she grabbed his neck!
"This is what happens when you mess with a vampire, darling," she said. "So, know your place." She kicked Darkstar back down to the ground, as he screamed all the way down!
He landed in a billow of smoke, no longer able to rise! Moka landed on the ground, looking back at the recovered Ultimate Chromastone! "Now Ben!" she said. "Finish it!"
Ultimate Chromastone threw her a thumbs up, as he ran over to Darkstar, picking him up, as he held his other hand out to the Philosopher's Stone! Energy crackled from Ultimate Chromastone's body, as he pulled the energy from Darkstar's form, sending it right back into the Stone! Darkstar screamed as Ultimate Chromastone felt every ounce of energy through his form, causing him to groan uncomfortably! Bright light was flowing from their forms, nearly blinding the others!
Finally, the light became too great, obscuring everything! When it died down, Darkstar fell over on his back, his face becoming gray and zombie-like, indicating the loss of power. Ben transformed back into his human form, stumbling before falling onto his back, gasping for breath!
Nearby, the others that Darkstar had drained had their mana restored. The group all got to their feet, surveying the situation. "You... you guys did it?" Danny asked.
"Yes we did," Moka said, returning to her own normal form, dropping to the ground herself. "And now... I'm spent."
"Then," Touka said, removing her mask, "we've won."
Annabeth walked over to Ben, seeing how the Bearer of the Omnitrix had become paled after his encounter, still scant of breath. Annabeth held out her hand, helping Ben to his feet.
Darkstar moaned as he struggled to sit up. He saw the group all looming over him, telling him not to try getting away. "Don't even think about it," Danny said, eyes glowing green.
"He's right Michael," Ben said, "you're finished. Just accept it."
Darkstar shook his head. "No," he said. "I will not let you best me. I won't be beaten by some mongrel Dark Realm monsters!"
Suddenly, his face dropped, a hint of fear in his eyes. "I… I cannot afford to lose," he said. Suddenly, a red vortex ripped open behind him with a screeching sound!
"Michael, no!" Ben said. However, he was haltered when he saw pale gray hands come from the portal, pulling Darkstar inside! Clearly, the indication was that it was not Darkstar himself that had opened that portal in an attempt to escape.
The group could only look to one another as an eerie silence hung in the air. Finally, it was broken with Jake asking a question that everyone was wondering. "What the frock?"
"Where did he go?" Touka asked.
"I don't know," Ben replied. "But from his face, he looked like he wasn't leaving by choice. I have a feeling that we'll see him again."
"One tall hot white mocha!"
Ben took the glass happily, offering Touka a playful wink as he blew softly on it to help it cool, before taking a sip. Next to him, Jake looked with a curious expression.
"You do know," Jake said, "that it sounds kinda wrong for you to have that because of… you know. Who we know?"
"You read into it, not me," Ben replied. Jake spluttered uncomfortably as Ben snickered in victory. Touka, behind the counter, rolled her eyes. Ben caught this look and offered a hand out to her, catching her attention.
"Hey Touka," he said, "how're you feeling?"
"Uh… fine, Ben," she said. "I mean… still a little uncomfortable with that Philosopher's Stone still sitting under my roof."
"Hey," Jake said, "Annabeth did mention that Chiron wouldn't be able to take the Philosopher's Stone since he has no authority over it with it being an item limited to magic users, and it would only just cause drama for Camp Half-Blood."
"I know that," Touka replied. "But I truly can't complain. Darkstar is beaten and your cousin is contacting any magic user she can to help dispose of the stone."
"How is she doing, by the way?" Jake said.
"She's good," Ben replied. "Turns out after stealing the Keystone from her, Darkstar just had her going around in circles while she thought she was searching for the ones responsible for the mana incident. Worse off she got is just being steamed she let Michael twist her head like that."
"Well, give her my thanks," Touka replied.
"You could thank her in person," Ben said. "I mean, really look on the bright side of everything. It's a beautiful day, Darkstar is beaten - and while he escaped, it seemed like he was more afraid than anybody else about what took him - nobody was seriously hurt and all the victims he took and turned into zombies have been restored to normal, and you look beautiful, Touka."
Touka's face turned bright red! "Honestly Tennyson!" she said. "Don't you have a girlfriend?"
"Ain't my fault that uniform looks flattering on you," Ben replied.
Nearby, Annabeth and Danny were watching from their own table. "Boy," Danny said, "I'm surprised with all his messing around that Touka hasn't just snapped and attacked him already, while she nearly breaks my face the moment I step out of line."
"What can I say?" Annabeth replied. "He's got charm and you don't."
"Good to see you still like me so much, Ann," Danny replied. "So, how're you doing after all this?"
"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked.
"Well," Danny replied, "Darkstar wasn't one of your typical enemies. He wasn't some monster or demigod, he was just a really pissed off guy. A guy who made it so you couldn't properly fight him. So, I was just wondering if you were, you know, okay."
"I'm fine Danny," Annabeth replied, "thanks for asking. Truth be told, I hadn't really thought about any of it while it was happening."
"You seem to do that a lot," Danny replied, recalling how Annabeth had done the same thing with the 'meat' she got for Touka.
"Too soon," Annabeth said firmly. "Even still, I found the battle strangely nostalgic. Yes, Darkstar was nothing like the Titans, Giants, or their respective followers, and yet the same concept still applied. Protecting the world alongside friends and allies like me. It was nice."
"Guess it's genetic or something, huh?" Danny asked.
"I guess," Annabeth laughed.
"Hi! Hi!" Moka said, bursting through the front door. "Sorry I'm late! But I'm here! I just had to convince my father to let me out!"
Several of the cafe's regular customers looked at her in surprise, along with the other teens, causing Moka to blush slightly as she forgot that this was normal business hours for Anteiku. "It's cool," Ben replied to her.
"Guessing your dad was not happy about the fight?" Touka asked.
"Not at all," Moka replied, standing next to the bar. "But I just had to explain everything as best as I could. He was happy to hear we're friends again!"
"Well that's… nice," Touka said, face reddening once again.
"Boy Touka," Jake said, "you're easy to fluster right now, huh?"
"Maybe," Touka said, "part of it has to do with the fact that I'm supposed to be working right now, and yet I'm here talking to you?"
Moka giggled. "Well," she said, "sorry Touka. That's the price you pay for friends."
"And with Touka sufficiently flustered," Annabeth said, she and Danny walking over to the others, "why did we meet up again like this?"
"True enough," Jake said. "Not that I ain't cool with us just chillin now that everything's done."
"Well," Ben said, "I've been thinking a lot ever since we beat Darkstar, while we were cleaning ourselves up. You see, I have learnt a lot more about my world in the past day that I ever thought I could. Living for so long with my eyes pointed to the sky above, I hadn't ever thought about what things might be going on in my own world."
"From dealing with aliens for so long, several like things that I had always heard of as nothing more than myths and legends like werewolves, ghosts, and mummies, I never considered they might be real. And while the threat this time around really did turn out to be something that I had fought in the past, if the time comes where something from your guys' neck in the woods comes around and I find myself ready to stop it, I think it'd be good for us to stay in touch. To know who to call if we ever have something to deal with that is bigger than ourselves."
"So…" Danny said. "Like, making ourselves a super team of monster hunters?"
"In a manner of speaking," Ben replied. "I've learned a lot about the benefits of having a team on my back. Because there are a lot of things out there that are too big for you to handle alone, even when you have the most powerful weapon in the universe at your disposal. And sometimes the big things that you really have to worry about aren't just from space, but things that are crawling under the bed."
"The next time some big ghost or goblin that I can fight shows up, I want to be there to stop it. And I would be honored to have you fighting by my side. The six of us together can do a lot more together and we can have each others' backs, taking advantage of our own abilities and skills."
The others all looked to one another, smiles growing on most of their faces.
"I'm down with being on a team," Danny said. "Fighting alongside real heroes that see me as an equal would be refreshing."
"Same here," Jake said. "Being the American Dragon has its benefits, but being recognized for it is welcomed. So you can count me in too!"
"Well that's for the boys," Moka said. "What about you two?" she asked Annabeth and Touka.
"I don't know," Touka said. "Like I said at the start of all this, I don't see myself as a hero. I don't want to go around fighting anybody. I just want to be left alone."
"Come on Touka!" Moka said. "This can be your chance to truly make a difference! To do something good for somebody else! Don't just turn away from that!"
Touka looked Moka right in the eyes. Finally, she looked back to Annabeth. "What about you?" she asked. "What do you think about this?"
"Well," Annabeth said, "while I made a promise to live a quiet life… I agree with what Moka said. About making a difference. If you're down for this Touka, then I'll be there beside you."
Touka looked at Annabeth for a moment, before giving a sigh. "Then," she said, "I guess we're all a team."
"Whoo!" Jake cheered. "Oh yeah! This is awesome! So what do we call ourselves?"
"Who said we call ourselves anything?" Touka asked.
"Oh come on now, Touka," Danny said, "we gotta have a team name."
"No we don't," Annabeth replied. "The last team I was on didn't have a name. Not a legitimate one."
"Well that's tough," Jake said. "We're a team of superheroes, so we're gettin' a name!"
"We are not superheroes!" Touka said. "We're just doing what we can."
Ben smirked happily, unable to keep himself from chuckling. This team was definitely more colorful and full of energy than the last few teams he'd worked with. And in his heart, he was happy that he was not going to be alone as he continued his walk on the dark side.
Far from Ben and the others, in a vast dark space, Darkstar was laying on his back, staring into the void. His helmet was back on his head, and he moaned to himself as he recounted his failure. Topped by his inability to escape those that were asking for his aid.
"Defeated again," he said slowly. "Tennyson bested me again. Not even with the aid of Gwendolyn, but by some mongrels from the Dark Realm. This cannot be how it ends for me."
"Well what do we have here?" a voice asked, piercing the silence of the void. An aged, but knowledgeable voice, as a form wearing a dark suit came closer to Darkstar. "I must say, Michael Morningstar, I am disappointed in your progress. My allies tell me that you failed to retain any of the power from the Philosopher's Stone, or even the Keystone of Bezel, and now Benjamin Tennyson has a group of allies at his back."
"I was at my strongest," Darkstar replied. "Such unbridled power at my disposal, with Tennyson and his allies at my knees. And still, Tennyson turned around and overcame me. Not by his own hand, but by the hand of some vampire child. Send somebody else after him, I am done."
"Is that your final answer?" the voice asked. "I ask this on account of you having a binding contract to take care of Benjamin Tennyson. To get him out of our hair as it were. But here we find you moping and brooding. Do you not remember what happens to those that violate their contracts?"
"It can be no worse," Darkstar replied, "than the constant pain and humiliation I have, and will continue to have, at the hands of Ben Tennyson, his cousin, or Charmcaster."
"Oh, but I dare say it can," the voice replied. With a snap of their fingers, Darkstar suddenly began screaming at the top of his lungs. "For that my friend is what will happen to you should you deliberately or inadvertently violate your contract. Now we ask only that you continue to hunt Benjamin Tennyson for us, regardless of any vampire that may or may not be at his side. And you do not have to worry your head over her, for we have others to take care of her. So, do we have an agreement?"
Finally, Darkstar was released, where he gave his response. "As you wish… sir."
A/N: And so we end the first story arc of the series "Pathos". I'll admit, looking back on it, I could've fixed a lot of things. Most notably with the reveal of Darkstar as the main antagonist, although I blame that more on the overall "outline" of the story I was using that was inspired by the movie "Justice League: Dark". But I am overall happy with it. I may go back and revise it in the future, and am open to suggestions about how I could have improved it. In the meantime, however, I'm instead going to focus on continuing the narrative and creating more episodes.
I forgot to mention in the last chapter, but since it was more heavily focused upon in this one I'm not too guilty, we have Ben using his Ultimate transformations with the new Omnitrix. I am among the many that agree that Ben should've kept the Ultimate transformations, even if they weren't as focused upon as they could have been, with only a scant few transformations aside from the initially advertised ones like Swampfire, Big Chill, Echo Echo, and so on, that were included later on. But they could have kept them and added more later, and I was especially not fond of how they instead chose them to be a source of power for Albedo specifically in Omniverse, so I went with the idea that the new Omnitrix allowed it.
Also, I included a transformation that was not from the series, Ultimate Chromastone. Now I will be upfront and say that his design described in the story is based off of Ultimate10's Ben 10 crossover story that I could only ever dream of being as popular as, "Ultimate Fairy." I have no intention of plagiarizing his idea, and am being upfront by saying that it was inspired by his design. And naturally, I recommend checking out Ultimate Fairy if you're a fan of Ben 10 and Fairy Tail, or just Ben 10 crossovers in general (I would assume since you're reading this one ;)
And finally, we have the fact that Moka is the one who beat Darkstar. This goes in with a different problem I had, where I felt the fight between Darkstar could've been adjusted a tad, but the main reason why I felt Moka was the one to ultimately beat Darkstar was the fact that vampires are so astronomically powerful! I don't intend to make them overpowered (who do you think I am, Stephanie Myer?) but they're still incredibly strong due to their incredible wealth of mana, or yoki in their case. I had no doubt that even with being supercharged, Moka could power on through his energy drains by totally unleashing her strength, and a few good whacks would be more than enough to take him down! I also wanted to use this as a sign of showing that Moka is going to be a heavy hitter in the future.
The last note I'll make is, yes this does take place where Ben and Julie are in a relationship, although I do intend to have Ben move on to somebody else in the future. I'm not going to have her die, and I certainly am not going for the awful breakup they had in Omniverse, I just want to make it something more natural given their characters. I do kind of hope to pair Ben up with somebody else in the future, and I would love to hear what suggestions you have.
And with that all said, thank you so much for reading! Let me know what suggestions you guys have in the future for new characters or other situations like monsters to fight or places to go in the future! Have a fantastic day, and I'll see you next time!