Part II. I alterted some plot points so the events of my sequel 'House of 1000 Weirdos' makes more sence.
Disclaimer: See chaptire I.
Empty Spiral
Chaptire II
"Bound at every limb by my shackles of fear
Sealed with lies through so many tears
Lost from within, pursuing the end
I fight for the chance to be lied to again
You will never be strong enough
You will never be good enough
You were never conceived in love
You will not rise above
They'll never see
I'll never be
I'll struggle on and on to feed this hunger
Burning deep inside of me"
- Evanescence, "Lies".
The radio in the RV was staticy and annoying, but it was the only thing keeping Max awake until he found that rest stop he knew was around some place. Through the high-pitched squeaks and cackles, he could make out the words to The Eagles 'Witchy Woman'. Max mouthed the words and tried to focus on the road, hoping he wouldn't hit a rouge raccoon or the like.
Max looked to the back of the vehicle, and smiled at the sleeping forms of his precious grandchildren. They were both the spitting image of their respective fathers. Ben had inherited his father Kenneth's brown hair and nose. Gwen got her ginger hair and chin of her father Glen. Max sighed and let his heart melt for a second, remembering how both his sons once were once the spitting image of himself. Though recently, Max had learned that there were some traits that one didn't inherit from family...
Family. That made Max think back to his beloved late wife, Emily. His dearest Em. She had past away years ago, Ben and Gwen never even knew her. They only knew what the family told them about her. And that made him think back to the albino girl Eloi. How oddly familiar some things about her seemed.
Her round nose, dark eyes, short fingers. So familiar. But why?
A loud honking snapped Max into reality as he swerved to avoid a truck. With that sudden adrenaline boost, Max wast so sleepy anymore. Checking the kids, they seemed unfazed.
"Good grief," Max thought. "These kids can sleep through anything." At last Max saw the turn off for the rest stop. He pulled in and parked the rusty old RV. At long last, Max stretched his aching appendages and promptly fell asleep.
The Mount. Rushmore base was in a frenzy. An alien civilian transport ship had been shot down by accident my some missile happy communist party that shall go un-named for now. Maxwell Tennyson was 37, a handsome, strapping fellow that made the ladies blush when he walked by. But they didn't matter to him. Max was still holding on to the hope that the one girl he had eyes for, Emily Wells, would finally notice him. Emily was one of the nurse' working at the base that treated the wound agents the got banged up out on the field.
Max felt an elbow in his ribs. He looked at his partner and friend, Phil Kaufman, who was giving him a look that said, 'Pay attention and get your rear in gear.' Max had no choice but to obey. The door to the transport van opened and The Plumbers fanned out around the wreckage, trying to find any sign of survivors.
Max poked around the debris with his laser rifle, careful not to poke someones eye out. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a faint sign of movement. He raced over to the place, lifting broken piece of the craft from atop the survivor. He lifted one last panel and was greeted with the sight of a young Nomisanian woman. The white skin and hair were proof of that.
Max gently lifted the woman into his arms, careful not to injure her further. He patted her face, trying to course a response from her. She open her eyes, which were like twin pools of amethyst. She lifted a hand to put on his face, like a blind person. Max blushed, feeling like a junior high boy being touched by the most popular girl in school. He hoped the universal translators that were installed in the collars of the uniforms worked.
"My name is Max Tennyson." ha said, hoping he had sound calm and assuring. "I'll be taking care of you now." the Nomisan woman's eyes grew calmer, and she smiled. Max smiled back.
"Weena. I am Weena." she told him.
"Weena." Max whispered in his sleep. He rolled over onto his side, only to be jolted by the sudden movement of the RV. He was thrown out of his seat, as were Ben and Gwen.
"Holy cow! What was that?!" Ben shouted. Max slapped his hand over his grandson's mouth, hoping it would muffle his shouts.
"Shush. Keep quite you two. I'm going to check it out. Just stay quite and lay low. I'll be back." Max, opened a hidden panel in the floor and pulled out a laser pistol he kept for emergencies. Max slowly open the door, and inched his way outside. He rounded the RV, his old training from his Plumber days coming back. After checking out the RV and the surrounding area, Max felt confused as he had not found any signs of an intruder, or the blast that rocked the place.
This didn't add up. You don't blow something up and there not be any sign of it. Unless... unless it was a distraction.
"Shit!" Max cursed and ran back to the RV. He threw open the door and found the place totally ransacked. Everything was in disarray. And worst of all, no sign of Ben or Gwen. Max cursed again, and thrust his fist into the metal door. He felt the skin of his knuckles break and hissed at the feel of the blood touching the air. He regained his composure, "You wont help them this way." he said to himself. He turned around to go back outside again, only to have a fist hit him dead on. He was flung back into the RV, blood pouring for his broken nose.
"Who the hell are you!" He demanded of his shadowy intruder. The figure didn't answer, only stepped aside to reveal Ben and Gwen bound and gagged, lying on the ground. Gwen had tears of terror welling in her eyes, while Ben was fumbling around in his restraints, trying to reach the Omnitrix. But the ropes covered the device, making it impossible for Ben to dial in an alien hero to remedy this situation.
The shadow pointed to them, and spoke with it's mind. "If you want your terk'quat spawn returned to you, meet me in the next town and we shall discuss things further." By they way this thing talked, (or though, take your pick), it wanted to do anything but talk.
"What do you want with them?! Tell me, damnit!" Max demanded again. If he didn't know better, Max could have sworn the thing was smiling under that hood it wore.
"All in good time, Mr. Tennyson." Max lunged for it, but was knocked aside with a back-handed slap. The thing put the kids over it's shoulders and disappeared into the humid summer night.
Max yelled with rage. How could he have let this happen? How could he have been so careless? And now his grand-children were at the mercy of some crazed psycho. Max started the RV and pucnhed the gas, not caring that he was going significantly over the speed limit.
Ben's' head felt like it had been used as a soccer ball for the British World Cup. And his hands felt even worse. Ben struggled against the restraint's that held his arms over his head. After 5 minutes of chafing his wrists with rope burns he gave up. He observed his surroundings. It looked like a warehouse that no one had used in a long time. Typical bad guy hiding spot.
"Gwen?" he called for his cousin.
"I'm behind you, dork bag." Gwen chidded from the other side of the pillar they were tied to. Ben craned his neck as far as it could go, so he could see Gwen a little better.
"You okay." Ben asked.
"Other than the headache, fine. You?"
"Same here. You didn't, by chance, happen to get a good look at the psycho who kidnapped us?" Gwen was hesitant to answer.
"Hey, did you here me?" Ben asked louder. Gwen kicked Ben in the back of his leg.
"Yes, I heard you. And yes, I saw him because he's sitting three feet away from me."
Ben wished he could switch places with Gwen, he really wanted to get a good look at the jerk who kidnapped them.
"Hey, you Freddy Krueger wanna be!" Ben shouted with all the bravado he could gather. "If you want the Omnitrix, you'll have to peel it of my cold, dead arm!"
Ben then really wished he could take that comment back. After nearly losing his arm the last time he fought Vilgax, he was pretty sure this guy would do the same thing.
"I have no interest in that tasteless bit of glorified arm wear you posses." he said telepathically again. But slowly, the garbly voice he used was getting more human, more femimine.
"Think about it Ben." Gwen told her clueless cousin. "If he wanted the Omnitrix, why kidnap the both of us? Why not kill us and get it over with?" Ben wanted to scratch his head right now.
"Uhhhh... I don't know! Hey, what do you want with us anyway?" Ben directed his last question at their capture.
"You're just the bait to lewer the stinking fish, Tennyson." By now, the voice had become a female voice. A little low but still girl enough. "He is the one I want."
"Why our Grandpa? What did he do to you?" Ben shouted.
"Grandpa? The father of your father? I forgot that humans age faster than Nomisanians.'" She said. While he had been play 20 questions, Ben was working hard to free his left arm. If you could just get to the Omnitrix, he could get them out of here in no time. Gwen moved more to her left, further obscuring their captures view of Ben.
"To answer your first question, terk'quat boy. I have vowed to avenge myself on all those who were spawned from his g'haked loins. Including myself..." She trailed off from there.
"What do you mean..." Gwen didn't get a chance to answer since the rope holding her arms up was broken by Ben in the form of Fourarms. Ben tore the pillar out of it's foundations and tossed it at the woman. She lifted her hand and the pillar was enveloped in a lavender color energy and it stopped in mid air. Her arms flew backwards, taking the pillar with it.
"And to answer your second question: He brought me into existence!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, sending a mass wave of telekinetic energy that lifted everything in the warehouse for a moment and dropped it to the ground. Gwen rubbed her sore tush and looked back at the girl. Her hood had been blown off during her little tantrum, and that white skin and hair was unmistakable to the Tennyson cousins.
"It's you! The girl grandpa was talking to at the carnival!" Ben said, still in Fourarms mode. "If you've got something against my grandpa, you'll have to take it up with me!" Ben charged at her, swinging all four arms wildly like he expected to hit something. Elois' eyes started to glow lavender, and Ben's body was rendered immobile with one thought.
"As powerful as the Omnitrix makes you, terk'quat, physical prowess is no match to the mind power of the Nomisanian race." Eloi pratically gloated. Ben struggled in the vice grip her mind held him, then the dreaded beep of the Omnitrix reverted him back to a 10-year old human again. Eloi dropped Ben, apparently not threated by his human form.
"Sit down and wait for Tennysons' arrival. If he shows up at all." Like hell Ben was going to wait. He quickly dialed in XLR8 and hit the button.
"Betcha cant get what goes really fast!" Ben ran as fast as XLR8 could carry him in this place. Eloi nearly got whip lash trying to keep up with Ben's' super speed. Up and down, left and right, round and round XLR8 goes. When he stops only he knows. Her temper flared, growing angry at the boy's failure to cooperate. She closed her eyes and made a sort of meditive hand signal.
Ben stopped, believing she had given up.
"Whats the matter? To slow?" Ben laughed. A smile crept across Elois' face as her eyes snapped open and the floor of the place was glowing with mental energy. Ben loat his balance and fell down. He tried to get up again, but each time he tried he lost balance.
"What the crud did you do?"
"I nullified the axis of the building. As long as the axis of balance here is off kilter, you can't stand up." Ben kept trying, but to no avail. He started feeling sick to his stomach, like he rode the Tilt-A-Whirl ten time in a row. Gwen felt the same from her cover spot. Eloi smiled that smile that could make the Cheshire Cat flinch.
"So, are we feeling properly subdued now?" she asked. She got her answer in the form of an unkown energy blast hitting her square in the chest. She hollered in pain and feel to her knees. Her concentration broke, the axis of balance was restored. Ben reverted back to normal abd cast a hopeful gaze to the warehouse doors. There stood Max, holding some sort of high-tech stun gun, his chest heaving with each breathe he took. Ben and Gwen raced to their grandfather, Max dropped to his knees to embrace his beloved grandchildren.
"Kids, I'm so sorry." Max said whole-heartedly to them. The cousins just hugged him their thanks, glad that he had come for them. From across the room, the laughter of Eloi was loud and maddening. The Tennyson family all looked upon the heaving form as she contiued to make even the sound of nails on a chalkboard sound pleasant.
"So...you...actually...came..." She said between gasps for breath. "So your not totally heartless, Tennyson. Well, emphasis on NOT."
"Get behind me you two. No questions Ben." They obeyed. Max raised the gun, and set it to kill. "Now, I want some straight anwers from you. Right here, right now!" Ben and Gwen couldn't remember a time when they'd seen him so angry. Max kept Eloi in his sights as she got up and trudged toward them.
"Go ahead and prove me right and shoot me. At least I'll die knowing I was right."
"Right about what, god dammit!!!!"
"That you never cared about us."
Max was at the end of his rope. One more vague answer and he would blow her head off.
"I don't even know who you are." Eloi looked stunned for a moment, but it soon passed.
"So nothing about me seems familiar? Not these eyes? These hands? Even this skin should be familiar. No?"
Max looked hard at her, and the only conclusion coming to mind was the one he could not believe.
"Weena..."
"Yes. Hello...father."