Chapter 10: Friend or Foe

It didn't take us long to reach the location of Kevin and the Rust Bucket, an old warehouse that had seen some better days. The Rust Bucket was parked just outside of it. Judging by the still-running engine and the lights being on, it seemed Kevin was still inside. We landed just a bit away from the Rust Bucket, taking care not to be seen.

"Why did he bring it here?" Gwen wondered.

"Why don't we ask him…" I replied as I pushed my fist into my palm.

"Wait, we shouldn't just rush in."

"Why not?"

I was ready to walk in and kick the ever-loving crap out of him, but Gwen thought otherwise.

"He came here for a reason. We should see what he's up to."

"Yeah...I guess you're right." I reluctantly admitted.

As much as I wanted to break down the door of the Rust Bucket and pound his face in, I knew she was right.

We didn't have to wait long to see why Kevin had come there.

Kevin flashed the Rust Bucket's headlights off and on a few times. And after a few more moments of waiting, the large metal door of the warehouse's main building opened up and out walked a familiar face. With that orange skin, the metal plate on his head, two dark brown horns extending from his broad jaw, and hulking frame clad in dark green power armor complete with a spiked gauntlet on his right hand, it could only be one person.

'Vulkanus…' I communicated to Gwen.

'There's an ugly mug I would have never liked to see again.'

'You and me both.'

Vulkanus was undoubtedly one of my tougher enemies. He could even go toe to toe with Four-Arms. Basically, not someone you'd want to go face to face without a plan. With him were several small but menacing-looking aliens in red and black bodysuits and masks with large pickaxe-like weapons. They honestly didn't look like much of a threat for most of my aliens, but the large amount of them was something to worry about.

We were just able to make out what they were saying.

"Levin, you have a lot of nerve showing your face after what you did." Vulkanus declared. "Leaving me in the clutches of those plumbers.

"I know I'm takin' a risk coming here, but I heard you got somethin' I'm lookin' to procure, and I figured you couldn't resist getting your hands on some Plumber tech. So why don't we bury the hatchet for now and get down to business?"

I could see the wheels turning in Vulkanus' head, obviously contemplating whether or not to do business with Kevin.

"Hmm...Where is the tech?" Vulkanus asked.

"Right here." Kevin replied as he pointed at the Rust Bucket. "This is a Plumber's RV. It's brimming with tech."

"Is that so...Bring it inside."

"See, I knew you'd come around."

'The bastards' trying to sell the Rust Bucket to Vulkanus…' I communicated.

'But why? What's he after?'

'Does it matter? We need to stop him now.'

I popped up the Omnitrix's display, but Gwen stopped me once again.

'Wait…'

'Why?'

'Use your head. Do you really want to take on Vulkanus and Kevin head-on? That's not going to be an easy task as it is, and with all those minions, it's going to be even tougher.'

'So what do you propose?'

'We sneak in and wait for the right moment and steal the Rust Bucket back.'

Something I neglected to tell Kevin was besides a Plumbers' badge; someone could also start with Rust Bucket with the Omnitrix.

"Not a bad idea, Gwen. Except, I don't know how to drive."

"I'll drive. I've gotten some practice running errands with my mom's car."

As Kevin drove the Rust Bucket into the warehouse, using the cover of the shadows, we made our way to the Rust Bucket's left side, out of everyone's sight. And as it came to a stop inside the warehouse, we hid behind some nearby crates and waited for an opening. Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan.

Kevin cut the engine to the Rust Bucket and stepped out, immediately closing the door behind him.

"Alright, so where is it?" Kevin asked.

"It's right here." Vulkanus said as he gestured towards a large machine. Vulkanus then raised his hand, giving a signal to his minions, several of which suddenly seized Kevin.

"Hey! What are you…"

"Did you really think I'd forgive you? I don't forgive. I get even!"

I could see Kevin's eyes darting up in the rafters of the warehouse for something.

"Looking for someone? Ah, yes. That little Posopine, Argit. He was supposed to be your eyes in case anything went down. Hide up in the rafters with a laser rifle. That was the plan, right?"

"Damn it, Argit…"

"A couple thousand credits, and he was more than willing to skip out on this meeting."

'It looks like Kevin could use our help.' Gwen communicated.

'He got himself into this mess. He can get out of it. We wait for the opening.'

Vulkanus' pickaxe aliens brought Kevin closer to the machine and forced his arm into a small hole despite Kevin's struggles. Kevin cried out in pain as the device could be heard clamping down on his arm. Kevin's body began to take on the properties of a light blue crystal.

"This machine here contains a small chunk of Taydenite. The rarest and hardest mineral in the milky galaxy. This machine will also force an Osmosian such as yourself to forcibly absorb it. Then my little Archimylions here will mine you until you've reached your limit. And then, I'll force you to absorb some of the Taydenite you've generated. You'll be my own personal Taydenite generator!"

'Ben, we can't just stand here and not do anything!'

But I did. I stood there, frozen. I was bitter at Kevin's betrayal. But it was more than that; it was anger; anger at everything Kevin had put me through when we were kids. Events I had thought I had gotten over, but apparently not. A part of me still resented him for what he did, and that part was stopping me from making a move, but then…

'I know how you're feeling right now, I do, but we can't just leave him like this. That's not what a hero would do. That's not what you'd do.'

'I…'

Gwen was right. What the hell was I thinking? Regardless of how I felt about him, this was wrong. What would Grandpa Max think if he saw me right now? I wonder what Gwen must think of me right now? The anger I directed towards Kevin I now partially directed toward myself. The rest I channeled towards that blowhard Vulkanus.

'You're right...I'm sorry.'

'Apology accepted. Vulkanus hasn't noticed us yet. So we still have the element of surprise. I think…'

Gwen's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Kevin began to speak to Vulkanus through his cries of pain.

"Aghh...Vulkanus, you can do whatever you want with me...Just please, I'm beggin' you. The holoviewer, give it to…AAAAGH"

'Holoviewer? Give it to who?'

"You're in no place to make demands right now, Levin."

"It's useless to you anyway! Please, AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

I had several questions and no time to think them over, but I knew the quickest way to get answers. I brought my hand down on the Omnitrix and transformed into..."Humungousaur!"

"So much for a subtle approach." Gwen said as she armed herself with her energy.

I pushed the crates hiding us out of the way as a swarm of pickaxe aliens came rushing at us. Their pickaxes were surprisingly sharp, not enough to do any severe damage to Humungousar but enough to cause some nicks here and there, but I knew if they kept at, the damage would add up.

Gwen had put up a barrier around herself while taking careful shots at the attacking aliens.

"Gwen, you think you can hold up here for a bit?" I asked.

"Yeah, go get him." Gwen replied.

I expanded a few feet in height, allowing me to push past the pickaxe aliens with relative ease.

"Let him go, Vulkanus!" I shouted with Humungousar's booming voice.

"Ben!?" Kevin shouted in pain.

"Well, if it isn't the big bad Ben 10 himself! You're here to save him?"

"That's right. Now let him go!"

"Why bother? He's betrayed both of us. Why waste your time on someone like him?"

"Kevin may not be the most trustworthy guy, but I'm not gonna stand by and let you torture him for some money-making scheme."

"Do you even know why he came here? What he was after?" Vulkanus asked as he pointed to one of his nearby pickaxe aliens, who brought over a holoviewer. "He was going to trade that RV of yours for this holoviewer. Not sure why; he was probably planning on selling it for a high price on the black market."

"No, that's not...aagh!"

"So whataya say? Do we have a deal?"

I came closer to Vulkanus. I gave him the impression that I was contemplating my decision. But, in truth, I had already made up my mind.

I gave Kevin a quick look before taking the holoviewer from Vulkanus, holding it gingerly between my thumb and pointer finger, making sure not to crush it with Humungousar's large hands.

"So we have a deal then?."

'Heads up.' I communicated to Gwen before tossing the holoviewer at her.

Gwen opened a small area at the top of her shield, allowing the holoviewer to pass through.

"Nah, no deal." I replied before punching him square in the face, only managing to knock him back several feet, but it didn't seem to hurt him much. If anything, it only seemed to piss him off.

"You know what!? I've been meaning to get some payback for our last encounter, anyways!"

I readied myself as Vulkanus charged at me. We locked hands in a test of strength. However, unlike Humungosaur's previous test of strength with the Highbreed, I started to gain the upper hand. I slowly began to inch Vulkanus back before increasing my height slightly to gain a boost in strength. I began overpowering Vulkanus pretty fast but just when it seemed like I had the upper hand, Vulkanus' left hand transformed into a large drill strong enough to pierce the palm of Humungosaur's hand and draw some blood.

"Aaaah!" I yelled and winced from the pain.

Things didn't get much better from there as Vulkanus followed up with a right-hand punch to my gut. The punch itself didn't really hurt. The spikes weren't enough to penetrate Humungosaur's thick hide. However, the electricity that surged through Vulkanus' gauntlet was enough to put me on the ground.

"What's the matter? Not a fan of electroshock therapy?" Vulkanus quipped as he revved up his drill hand. "Then how about a lobotomy!"

Vulkanus brought the spinning drill down on my head. Fortunately, I recovered enough and used my tail to trip Vulkanus up, just inches before it made contact with my noggin. I made it to my feet right before Vulkanus and used my tail to trip him up a second time.

Vulkanus multiple times to get back to his feet, but I continued to trip him up each time, saying, "Have a nice trip see you next fall." each time I did it.

"Get him!" Vulkanus shouted with a frustrated grunt after hitting the ground for the dozenth time.

Before I could react, I was swarmed by a large number of pickaxe aliens, enough to nearly cover me completely, leaving only my head and tail exposed. I started growing larger to get them off of me. But I could only expand by maybe a few feet before Vulkanus hit on the base of my tail with his shock gauntlet.

"How about I rip this tail off!?" Vulkanus shouted with boiling anger as he gripped my tail tighter.

The pain from both the surging electricity and Vulkanus' vice-like grip was enough to reduce me back to regular size and nearly enough to make me pass out.

'Getting a weird sense of deja vu right now…' I thought as I began to join Kevin in the land of unconsciousness. 'Gwen…I can't leave her to fend for herself...I can't…'

But I didn't have to because Vulkanus was suddenly hit with a large energy blast strong enough to knock Vulkanus back into a large metal rack nearby.

"Gwen?"

Hi, Gwen here. If you don't mind, I'm going to take things over again, but just for a moment. Now let's rewind things just a bit.

As Ben pushed through the swarm of pickaxe aliens, I was left to fend them off, which was challenging but manageable at first. My shield held up well against their weapons, but it was only a matter of time before they wore it down and broke through. I did what I could to take some out. I opened up a small area of my shield that was out of reach of the aliens and took shots at the ones further away. I also periodically opened my shield to let in some to take head-on in hand to hand combat.

At first, I only let in one at a time. I found the Pickaxe Aliens were reasonably easy to disarm and just as easy to dispatch. Their attack patterns were pretty predictable, so I began letting in a few at once. A snap kick here, a shoulder toss there, a piece of cake, but the amount of energy it took to keep my barrier up soon began to take its toll.

And then there was Ben. With most of my focus on the pickaxe aliens, it was hard to keep track of Ben's fight with Vulkanus. The number of pickaxe aliens decreased on my end when Vulkanus ordered several of them to attack Ben, and when I saw Ben at the mercy of Vulkanus, my heart sank.

"Ben!"

And then it was like something clicked inside of me. I didn't know what was happening to me, but I suddenly felt this surge of power. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before. It coursed through my entire being. It was almost overwhelming. Utilizing this sudden burst of power, I sent out a wave of energy that knocked all of the pickaxe aliens down and out, then I locked my eyes on Vulkanus. I focused my energy into both of my hands before bringing them together. I fired a large beam of energy at Vulkanus that knocked him back into a large rack filled with sheet metal, causing the entire thing to collapse on top of him. After that, I rushed over to Ben's side.

Alright, I'll take it back from here. Thanks, Gwen.

Anytime.

When I saw Gwen standing over me, just for a brief second, it looked as if her skin was glowing, and before I could thank her for coming to my aid, she collapsed, but despite Humungosaur's lumbering frame, I was able to make it bake to my feet and catch her just before she hit the ground.

"Gwen, are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little drained." she replied as I set her down, making sure she was able to stand on her own two feet.

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know. I saw you were in trouble, and I just got this sudden burst of energy. Maybe it was just my adrenaline."

"Must have been one hell of an adrenaline rush. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, Ben. It's Kevin we should be worried about."

Kevin was still unconscious but showed signs of stirring. The Taydenite that surrounded him had grown several inches thick and was still rising, but at a much slower rate than before. The time-out alarm began blaring, so I moved as quickly as I could and broke Kevin from the machine's restraints, but before I could attempt to break through his Taydenite coating, the time was up, and I was back to normal.

"Ouch!" I shouted as my normal human hand made contact with the hard as holy hell Taydenite.

"Ben…" A now awoken Kevin said weakly.

"We can save the talking for later." I replied. "Do you think you can reverse this?"

Kevin closed his eyes and concentrated, and the Taydenite shrunk by a couple of inches before stopping.

"I can't...I'm too tired."

"I think I can help." Gwen said as she put her hand on Kevin and closed her eyes, and after a few seconds, the Tadyenite surrounding Kevin began to shrink, and after a few seconds more, it was gone.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Magic." she replied with shrugged shoulders. "To be honest, I don't know how I did it. It was like my intuition told me I could."

"Ben…" Kevin said again. The tone was still weak, but he had already begun to show signs of regaining his strength. "The holoviewer, where is it?"

"I have it right here." Gwen replied.

"Tell me, were you actually planning on selling this thing on the black market?" I asked Kevin.

"No. Vulkanus was lying. I was trying to get that for you."

Kevin gestured for the holoviewer. Gwen looked at me for confirmation. So, I nodded, and Gwen handed it to him.

"You were trying to get that for me? Why?"

"I heard through the grapevine that there were rumors of a holoviewer floating around. Anyone who tried to access it would only hear this message."

Kevin pressed his palm against the top of the holoviewer, and a message started playing.

"Access denied. Access permitted only to BKT."

"BKT...My initials." I replied.

"I think this is coded to you. It might be a message from Max."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

If what Kevin said was true, then this was the biggest break we've had in finding Grandpa, but I still had one nagging question.

"But why steal the Rust Bucket? Why not just come to us and make a plan?"

"Stealing the Rust Bucket seemed like the path of least resistance."

"Looks like you were wrong on that." Gwen replied.

"I know...I didn't tell you my plan because I didn't know if you would go along with it. I know how much the Rust Bucket means to you guys. I should have just come to you guys but working in teams has never been my strong suit. I'm...I'm sorry."

"No, Kevin. I'm the one who should apologize." I replied. "I was so quick to write you off without thinking of any other possibilities. I should have jumped in to save without hesitation, but I didn't. I hesitated because I hadn't completely forgiven you for the past. I'm sorry."

"No, man. I get it. There was some real bad blood between us. That ain't something that can fade easily. You don't have to apologize for anything. I'm the one who screwed up, not you."

"Still, after what you've done for me, I should be the one apologizing."

"No, I should. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm…"

"You're both jackasses." Gwen interrupted. "Look, it doesn't matter who's more at fault here or who's more sorry. You both forgive each other, right?"

"Yeah." Kevin replied.

After seeing what Kevin was willing to go through for the sake of the mission, my answer was clear.

"Yes, I forgive you."

"Good."

"Partners?" Kevin said as he held out his hand.

"Friends." I replied

"Now, let's see what's on that holoviewer." Gwen suggested.

I held the holoviewer in one hand and pressed my other palm on the top.

"Authorization BKT approved."

Like before, the holoviewer projected a hologram of Grandpa Max. Sounds of blaster fire could be heard in the background, and Grandpa looked like he was in a hectic situation.

"Ben, I hope you find this. The place I'm leaving this in isn't the most secure, so I've set it so only you can access it. I don't have much time so listen close. The threat to this planet is more significant than I realized. You won't be able to do this alone. You and Gwen need to put together a team. There are other Plumber's kids out there. Find them. And Ben, listen carefully this…"

We could hear the sound of a massive explosion in the background.

"Damn it. I'm out of time. Ben, this thing is connected on both sides. Be careful who you trust."

"Transmission ended."

"This thing is connected on both sides?" Kevin questioned. "What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure." Gwen replied.

"Be careful who you trust. Labrid said the same thing before he died." I noted. "We can debate that information later. For now, we know what to do."

Gwen and Kevin nodded in agreement.

"Alright, Let's get going." I suggested. "We need as much rest as…"

"I'm not finished with you!" Vulkanus' voice rang out as he tossed jolted up from the ground tossing the railing aside. Sparks were shooting from his severely damaged armor as he charged at us.

He attempted to swing at me, but before he could make contact, Kevin absorbed a nearby piece of Taydenite onto his right arm and punched into Vulkanus' armor, causing it to shatter into pieces. And to all of our surprise, it appeared as if Vulkanus vanished. It took us a second or two to realize that he was still there among the pieces of his suit.

"He's so…" I began to say.

"Small…" Gwen finished.

"Wow, Vulkanus, I guess that suit really was compensating for something after all." Kevin quipped.

"Shut up! You'll all pay for this!

With Vulkanus' deep voice coming out of that big head and tiny baby-like body, I think all three of us struggled not to bust out laughing.

"So, whataya wanna do with him?" Kevin asked me.

"Leave him. We have bigger fish to fry."

A lot bigger.

A/N

Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. I'm going to keep the notes short this time and simply ask you to remember to follow if you haven't yet and maybe even click that favorite button and let me know your thoughts with a review.