A/N: This took a lot longer than it needed to be because I forgot to paste the five hundred or so words that I had already written out, so I had to start this beginning part all the way over. Swear to Christ, sometimes I have the brain of a squirrel with how quickly I forget shit.
"No one died?" Ben questioned.
"Thankfully, no. He only managed to subdue us - not kill us," Darque, the Plumber leading the protection detail said.
He was a light grey alien with two sharp teeth jutting out at the front, and a large jaw to match. He was just a tad bit bigger than his grandpa was, but a wider body.
He was questioning the Plumber outside of the medbay, given how he was the only one out of the protection detail who wasn't injured to a point where they couldn't walk. All laser based injuries.
"What exactly happened?" Ben questioned.
"We had been sticking close to Mrs. Tennyson as was the usual formation. Though when she made her exit out, the one the rest of the Earthlings refer to as Captain Nemesis dropped in. We had closed in, and he overpowered us," Darque told him.
"And... that's all?" Ben questioned.
"You suspect there's more?" Darque questioned.
"Nemesis' powerset was not enough to where trained Plumbers should've been overpowered by him. There are only a few people that are that strong, and he wasn't one of them. At least not to where he wouldn't be injured, and there wasn't a scratch on him before I fought him," Ben said with a frown. "Him trying to just straight up kidnap my mother the way he did shouldn't have ended up with him being successful."
"Not all Plumbers have the same capabilities of your team," Darque brought up.
"I understand that. But the security detail plan is very simple. Four of you engage whatever the threat is, and you were given plenty of methods to slow them down. Electric restraint guns, flash grenades, even your blasters as a last resort. He isn't exactly resistant to any of those. And then the last person is supposed to get my mother out of there during the distraction," Ben explained.
"We were all trained to the tactic Mr. Tennyson," Darque told him.
"Then why didn't it work. When by all means, it should have," Ben said, staring the Plumber dead in the face.
Darque just barely held the stare without flinching. The look in the teenager's eyes offset any lack of intimidation his age might've brought.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" the Anodite continued.
"You can't tell me you suspect us. After all of this?" Darque questioned.
"Well, what am I supposed to think in a situation where you had no chance of screwing up, yet my mother was put in danger anyway. Either someone is a traitor or you've been compromised in some way. Or... There's something you're not telling me," Ben said, narrowing his eyes at Darque.
"I'm telling you, that it's nothing. It could very well be the stress of nearly..."
An impatient exhale from Ben's nostrils interrupted him as well as the mana tendrils he brought up the bind the man.
"Are you insane?!" Darque exclaimed.
"Not yet, I'm not," Ben said before grabbing the skin off his right hand and tearing it off.
Rather than his Anodite skin, underneath it was the tendril of an Amperi. Ben then turned his green eyes to the Plumber, radiating nothing but disdain.
"About a week ago, I met an Amperi by the name of Ra'ad. Before I took him back to his home planet, he gave me a warning. He warned me that even considering how powerful I am and how grateful he was for choosing to trust him, it was a bad idea to what I've been doing. Trusting people I had no business trusting. Like you, who I feel like hasn't been honest with me once this entire time," he told him.
"In addition, he told me something that would help with that. The brain pulses of many species in the universe run off electrical waves. And that their species can read those waves as the thoughts themselves," Ben said before looking at him. Then his tone turned mocking. "'He can't find out what happened.' 'Why's he asking so many questions? He has no reason to suspect something might've gone wrong.' 'This entire time he's been reading my mind?' Yes. Yes I have."
Darque froze as Ben continued to hold the eye contact, and Ben looked away once he noticed his gaze grew fearful. It was all he could do not to recoil in disgust at the reputation killing Vilgax had gave him, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't useful.
"No. I'm not going to kill you. You're not worth it. But by the time Grandpa Max is done with you, who is no longer a Plumber and isn't bound by their rules, you'll wish I had. Now are you going to be honest with me, or are we going to do this the hard way?" Ben questioned, learning close to the man's face.
"We broke formation," Darque immediately said, making Ben raise an eyebrow. "There had been nothing going on that warranted our attention, and there was no Senior Magister of the region monitoring our behavior. So every once in a while..."
"'Several of you leave the planet and go somewhere else,'" Ben finished for him. "How many of you were actually here when Nemesis attacked?"
"Two," Darque said.
Two. Two Plumbers. Now Ben could defintiely see Nemesis taking down two Plumbers before his mom was taken away. Despite being outgunned, Nemesis definitely beat them in skill and experience.
"And then the three Plumbers in the medbay injured themselves to make it look like you were all just overpowered," Ben said in an even tone, raising his hand to silence anything the man was about to say. "Not. A. Word. Anything that you have to say will just make me angrier. You neglected your job because you were bored. And then had the nerve to lie to me about it."
Darque looked away from Ben, and the Anodite had to inhale and exhale multiple times to keep himself calm. For once, it wasn't just being Ben Tennyson that put his family at risk. It was due to five idiots not doing their job and trying to cover it up. He really didn't like to think about how common that might've been before they came around.
"But what happens to you is not up to me. I'm going to get you and your buddies out of my sight, and I'm going hope whoever they send to replace your miserable hides actually does their job," Ben said, yanking the man to his feet and walking into the medbay. Heads were going to roll if he had anything to do about it.
Ben was usually never a fan of how being who he was often got him certain liberties that he knew no regular Plumber would normally get. But just like the situation with Ship, he was glad to make use of it when he needed to. And this was no exception.
The moment Ben mentioned that the Plumbers that were responsible for guarding his mother were severely neglecting their duty, the guy on the line apologized profusely on their behalf and said he would try his best to get it done. He knew that the Plumber responsible for handling transmissions that came into HQ weren't part of the higher ups that he had to listen to, but it at least reassured him that someone would be looking into this situation sooner than what might've been the case.
Again, he really didn't like to think about how it would've been before he, Gwen, and Kevin came around. Magister Galil proved that people could be rather lax when it came to Earth security outside of his grandpa and Magister Labrid, and the idea that it got even more lax due to his death was not comforting in the slightest. It didn't help that they had yet to assign a replacement for him yet.
Ben teleported to his grandpa's RV before knocking on the door with a sharp tap. It didn't take long for the door to open. He gave his grandpa a hesitant smile, but the older man didn't buy into it for a second.
"What's happened?" Max questioned.
"I pressured the Plumbers that were responsible for guarding mom. Turns out that three of them were completely off planet when Nemesis attacked," Ben said with a humorless smile, causing his grandpa to sigh. "Nothing new, huh?"
"Sadly, no. There's a reason the investigation on the Highbreed had to be done between me and Magister Labrid. Off the books, at that. Earth Plumbers are hardly ones that take the planet's security as seriously as they should. After all, what threat is there when Vilgax was rumored to be dead at the time, and the planet's technology only amounts to level two," Max explained.
"That's so stupid," Ben said with a sour look.
"That's the reality of the situation. Though that doesn't excuse their behavior," Max said, a stormy look crossing his face. "Where are they now?"
"Kevin took them to be arrested off planet. This whole situation is just a mess. Thank goodness for Ra'ad," Ben said.
"Ra'ad?" Max asked.
"One of the aliens Aggregor was after. He was the one who told me that their species could read minds. If it hadn't been for knowing that, I wouldn't have had anything concrete to pin on him - he was stubborn enough to not admit it until I started telling him his thoughts word for word. Between that and telling him that he'd have to deal with you without Plumber regulations holding him back, he was scared enough to admit it," Ben explained.
"You're not very far off. I really have a distaste for any Plumber that doesn't take the job as seriously as they should. People's lives are at stake, and they still want to treat it like it's Plumber Academy - like everything's training," Max said before walking over to the fridge and roaming around in it.
"Here's hoping that the Plumbers they send me to replace them aren't idiotic enough to try that again. Because I'm going to screen them before anyone we know even have the chance to be put in that situation," Ben said with a frown.
"I can take over keeping an eye on them in the meantime. If anyone I can't handle shows up, I'll be sure to contact you," Max told him, tossing him a bottled water. "I'm just glad things didn't turn out to be much worse."
"Believe me. So am I," Ben said as Max put a comforting hand on his grandson's shoulder. "Was it ever this bad for you?"
"No. Back then, I didn't have so much family. And when I did, Verdona was always there. You think any criminal would've lasted?" Max questioned.
"Not a chance," Ben said with a small smile.
"Then after Frank and Carl grew up, I went back into the Plumber life. And I didn't have the notoriety that you had, so no one knew how to track them down. It was significantly easier for me than it was for you in that matter," Max told him. "But despite that, you have far more influence on the Plumbers than I could ever hope to match. As long as you can find yourself a team that's full of people like Labrid was, you won't have to worry as much."
"I hope you're right. Because I am thoroughly sick of everyone thinking my family is easy pickings because they don't have powers or training like the rest of us do," Ben said, tightening his hand on his water bottle.
"Things have to get worse before they get better, Ben. And sometimes worse is the absolute worst. Just keep your head, do the right thing, and it'll smooth itself out one day," Max assured him.
Ben nodded, and took a sip from his water bottle. His grandpa wasn't the type to feed him false hope just cause it sounded right. He really believed things would get better. And that helped him hold out hope that it would as well.
A/N: Took longer than I was hoping to get this done. But it always seems like the end result is better when I accidentally delete previous work. That whole idea where Ben disguises his alien form using a human body is an idea that wasn't in the original draft, and yet it was a so much cooler idea to get the truth than what I had before.
Granted, this whole chapter wasn't in the original draft of the story I had written out - it just came to me when I was editing. I'm glad it did though, cause I like to think it adds a bit more depth to things. Hope you enjoyed this.