Congratulations on Chimera Rising on making it to 10 Chapters. And more impressively, me actually being consistent with updates. Seriously, that's just noteworthy right there.

I do not own Ben Ten or Worm, we've been over this like...9 times already.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

Brockton Bay

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

12:05 PM EST

*Click*

"...and if you are joining us now then we come to you live on the site of a violent struggle that happened last night between the local gang the Empire 88 and the notorious killer Chimera-"

*Click*

"-the damage is-thankfully-minimal as compared to the night of Chimera's first rampage-"

*Click*

"...among the dead are as follows; Othala, Rune, Krieg, Menja, Hookwolf, and even the gang's leader Kaiser himself. This is a major blow to the infamous neo-nazi organization and with the confirming of Chimera's continued presence in the city, this has many people on edge for what is to happen next. The PRT have yet to give a statement."

"In other news, Max Anders, CEO of the Medhall Corporation appears to be missing-"

The TV clicked off.

In the reflection of the screen to his right, his underling stood behind the couch. Devilish mask on, knives freshly sharpened, bandoleer full, his body still and stiff; doing what he always did before the time came-waiting for his command. A cunning smirk slowly worked its way across his face.

"Go."

No nod or vocal confirmation, he simply vanished, leaving behind a duplicate that crumbled to ash seconds later.

"Heh!"He laughed callously,"And so an Empire crumbles."

The guards stationed at the front entrance of the safehouse rapidly drew their guns when a car suddenly screeched into the lot, but lowered them when they recognized the man driving as one of their own.

Out of the car, a large man in a black and red jacket and his head shaved, aggressively climbed out of the driver's seat and started marching across the pavement to the entrance. One of the guards holstered his pistol and went to meet him halfway.

"Where are they?!"

"Tom calm down!"

Using his anger and superior height and muscle, he bulldozed past the ones in his way. Tom burst through the doors and made his way to the infirmary. They clamored after him, nipping at his jacket and shoulders, calling his name, begging and pleading to slow down, to stop and listen. He ripped his arms free, not reducing his pace even a little as he stomped down the narrow corridor.

The large Iron door did nothing to halt him as he grabbed the handle and slammed it open. Stalking inside he was met with the defeated stares of the capes inside.

Slamming the door shut behind him, he glared hatefully at each one of them.

To the side, Alabaster and Night leaned against the wall with empty eyes. On the beds, Crusader and Cricket laid. The former with his right arm in a sling and left leg in a splint, and the latter with half her face and body being wrapped in gauze and bandages, though they did nothing to sufficiently hide the burns covering her body. Stormtiger sat on the bed next to Cricket, leaning on his knees as he leveled the floor with a vacant glare. And at the other end of the room, Victor stood looking out of a window, mask held tightly in his hand.

Tom felt his boiling blood flowing through him, making his face red with the wrath he was struggling to keep a hold of. Before the group who-on any other day-he would have been careful with how he even looked at them he asked hostiley,"What happened?"

A dead silence sat between them as only half of the occupants in the room turned to regard him with faint curiosity.

"Well?!"He demanded. A few of them blinked in confusion.

"Who the fuck are you?"Alabaster neutrally acknowledged.

"Tom Asher."He answered angrily,"My brother's name is Mike. He went with you last night. But he never came home. He's dead right?"

"If he was with us, then yeah, he's dead."Alabaster responded uncaringly.

Tom's jaw tightened, teeth grinding painfully. Blood started pumping faster, heating up his body as the fire in his pulsing veins rapidly spread. The stockpiling rage buried the sour and heavy grief that churned at the base of his stomach. It took a minute before he could speak again.

"...Right. That's why I'm asking you again...What. Happened?"He ground out.

Alabaster raised an eyebrow as he pushed off the wall and started slithering towards Tom.

"And that's where I have to ask you again. Who the fuck are you, to demand answers from us?"

He stopped right in front of Tom. Though smaller than him, he wasn't the least bit intimidated, impressively enough, Tom didn't seem too intimidated by the undying cape in front of him either. The two stared intently at each other, neither backing down from the other's gaze. Alabaster started reaching for his knife at the same time Tom's clenched fists began to shake.

"Enough."Victor called out from his side of the room."Alabaster, stand down."

The standoff continued for a few more seconds before Alabaster slowly backed away from Tom, never breaking eye contact until he was back to his original spot on the wall.

Victor turned from the window to finally look at Tom. Tom was a bit disturbed with Victor's dull eyes and pale complexion. The man looked like he'd aged decades in a single night.

"Your brother, Mike, was it?"He asked tonelessly.

"Yeah,"Tom stiffly retorted,"I tried to talk him outta going. But he said there wouldn't be anything to worry about with all of you around. Guess he was wrong, so now i'm wondering; What. The Hell. Happened?!"He hissed.

Victor stared at him for a few seconds, Tom feeling a bit uncomfortable with that lifeless stare, before he sighed and dragged a hand down his tired face.

"A lot happened. Stuff we weren't prepared for."He admitted,"We finally got a lead. Had a plan drawn out, and went to confront him. We were cocky, acting too fast. We thought we had him cornered." Victor shook his head, remembering the futility of the situation.

"We walked right into a trap. Chimera took out every non-powered member in almost the blink of an eye. Really he could've killed all of us the moment we went into that warehouse. Instead, the rest of us were just being toyed with." A hollow chuckle jumped from his mouth.

"I think he was toying with us the whole time. Even when the others showed up. There's no other reason any of us should be alive."

Tom noticed a few other capes in the room were shaking. From anger or anguish he couldn't tell. No doubt the pain and humiliation from last night was still fresh in their heads.

A vindictive satisfaction shot through him.

"So that's it?"He asked with a trembling voice after a few moments of quiet."That's all you have to say? That's why my brother's dead? Because you idiots didn't have a good enough plan?"

Victor watched him impassively. A spark lit in him at their dismissive attitude, the gathered wrath igniting inside him.

"Answer me!"He roared with his face hot and veins bulging.

"What do you want me to say?"Victor asked dryly."Our plan failed. And now your brother's dead. You won't be able to see him again. You won't wake up tomorrow knowing he's still around. Instead you'll fall asleep with the knowledge he's gone. His body was left behind and horribly mutilated to the point of being unrecognizable. And all because of us going after some freak of nature with not a shred of humanity in him. There's nothing to be done now, so go ahead and blame us all you want."

Victor looked down at the golden band encircling his finger, and Tom saw a glint of powerful grief flash in his eyes.

"I know I do."Victor whispered softly.

Tom's hands went white with how strongly they were clenched, the burning that had been in him was slowly being extinguished and the chest clenching sadness that had been buried was starting to sprout. Tom fought the tears in his eyes with everything he had, desperately swallowing down the sobs that wanted to be released. He couldn't fight for long, as the first cries started to push past his mouth.

The building shook. Tom paused and looked up. The others looked around curiously.

A loud slam echoed behind the door Tom had come through, startling everyone inside. They all watched the door, hearing the frantic shouts of the guards amongst gunfire. Their screams eventually turned into agonized screaming. The Empire capes felt their hearts pounding in their ears, and a chill wrapping around them as they listened to the pained howling of their members. A disturbing feeling of Déjà vu coming over all those that were at the docks last night.

Soon the last guard was silenced, and the group was left in a tense stillness. Stormtiger gulped, Crusader tensed, Cricket began to breathe heavier, Alabaster, Night and Victor all stared forward and Tom backed away from the door.

For a whole minute, all was quiet, then without warning, the large metal door was launched off its hinges into the room. The heavy door slid to a stop in front of Victor with a large dent crumbling the middle. Any of the capes who were able, stood up and prepared themselves for whatever was on the other side.

Like a wave of water, it washed over them. Dread, Fear, Paralyzing Terror. Everyone inside the room broke out into a cold sweat and their hearts began shoveling adrenaline through their bodies.

Tom fell to his knees clutching his chest in sheer horror. He lifted his head up to behold the figure that walked out of the dark corridor.

Her boots echoed like bell tolls against the concrete floor, white dress-stained with tiny flecks of blood-seeming almost wraithlike with how it flowed with her every step, glacial ice blue eyes pierced the souls of everyone present. Her young face was unnaturally blank, as if chiseled from marble: a living statue brought to life by malice.

Tom felt his stomach twist and swirl with the amount of pure panic circulating through him. Intellectually he knew, he shouldn't be so afraid right now. Intellectually he knew that with a costume so bright and cheery there wasn't anything remotely frightening about her. Intellectually he knew that as a hero, and one as public as her, she couldn't risk doing anything reckless. Intellectually he knew all of this. But right now, none of that mattered, because the deep buried primal part of himself that controlled his most basic survival instincts was utterly convinced that right now-if he didn't act soon, he was going to die.

"I'm gonna ask nicely once. If I have to ask again,"Victoria Dallon began while raising her hand.

Her fist lashed out and folded the wall to her right, shaking the entire room and putting an intricate web of cracks along the surface. A whimper escaped from Tom's mouth.

"Then someone's gonna get hurt."She finished eerily.

Victor, despite the horrible trembling in his legs, stepped forward.

"W-what do you want?"He asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

Victoria evaluated him for a moment before she began levitating off the ground and floating over to him. Victor did his best to not avert his eyes, no matter how badly he wanted to. Craning his neck upward to look at her, Victor swallowed before Victoria latched her hand around his throat and lifted him off the ground. Victor's hands instinctively tried to pry her off, but it did nothing against the steel grip of the member of New Wave.

"I only want to know one thing."Victoria said chillingly as she glared down at the squirming villain in her hand.

"Where. Is. Chimera?"

Across town, in one of their storage facilities, members of the Empire 88 scrambled to load up trucks with all their weapons inside.

"Hurry the fuck up we gotta get this shit outta here!"A bearded man yelled over to a group that was struggling with a large crate. He instructed another group to give them a hand before he went out back to see the next truck off.

Walking up to the drivers side, he handed the driver an envelope and told him to burn the letter inside once he was finished.

"Mac we got a problem!" A heavily tattooed man called.

Swearing under his breath, Mac marched over to the one who called him. The two ducking into a corner to talk between each other.

"What's wrong?"Mac asked.

"Nobody at Drove Street is answering."He informed."I called 6 different people but nobody picked up."

"Did you call Johnny?"

"He was the first one I called."

"Motherfu-! Hold on."He sneered before turning away and pulling out his phone.

He speed dialed Johnny and waited as the phone rang in his ear. When the automated voice message came on, he hung up, an uneasy feeling starting to stir in his gut.

"Something's not right."He muttered. Turning around, he walked back into the facility, the tattooed man following close behind.

When he got back in, he was frustrated to see that none of the other crates had been moved yet, and the other members were gone.

"What the hell!"He simmered,"What's going on here? Where'd those fuckers go?"

"Mac…"

Mac turned to see the tattooed man-Andy, he thinks his name is- was staring hauntedly and pointing at something behind a stack of crates. Mac walked around him to see what he was gawking at, only to feel his stomach drop at the sight.

The others were laid out all over the floor, bodies limp, laying atop pools of blood. A closer inspection saw that most of the men had had their throats cut wide open.

"Fuck…"Mac swore softly.

A quiet gurgle alerted him to a nearby body. The man, looking more like a young teenager barely out of high school, was holding his hands over his open esophagus trying in vain to stem the bleeding. Mac crawled over to him and saw him staring intently up at the ceiling.

He looked up, and felt his blood chill and his heart skip a beat. Crouching in the rafters, a red demonic mask smiled down at him. Frozen in fear, Mac blinked when the mask turned to the side and suddenly crumbled into a gray ash.

A pained cry startled him to look over and see Andy crumble to his knees as the masked man behind him shoved a large combat knife into his side. As Mac scrambled to pull out his gun, the demon faced man pulled out a second knife and drove it unflinchingly into Andy's throat, all the while staring right into Mac's eyes.

Mac stumbled to his feet, pointing his trembling pistol at Oni Lee as he watched Andy gargle and choke on his own blood, the red liquid flowing down his neck like a waterfall.

"Y-you stay away from me!"Mac stuttered when Oni Lee pulled his knives free and let Andy's dying body fall to the ground. Oni Lee tilted his head as he stared down Mac's shaking grip on his pistol. Mac felt his heart beat painfully in his chest as he watched the dripping knives, fresh with the blood of Empire members.

'I didn't even hear him, how'd he kill everyone so fast?!'Mac panicked internally.

Oni Lee took one step forward before Mac pulled the trigger, shooting him straight in the head, causing his body to jerk back.

Mac's victory was short-lived when the falling body dissolved into Ash just before it hit the ground. Mac screamed when a sharp pain suddenly flared across his calf muscles, causing him to drop his gun and fall to his knees. He looked back to see Oni Lee pull the knife from his leg before shaking off the blood and sheathing the blade. Oni Lee glanced back at him before he teleported all around him, leaving duplicates to surround him before teleporting back up to the rafters above. Mac watched in numb horror as each copy pulled two grenades from their bandoleer and yanked the pins with sharp pings ringing through the air.

"Wait, don't!"He begged as he looked up to the original.

Oni Lee raised a hand and waved goodbye.

A brief flash, and Mac's whole world was consumed in fire and shrapnel.

Twenty minutes later, a group of cars pulled up the Empire storehouse. Out of the cars climbed out fifteen ABB gangsters, each one of them clad in their signature red and green. They leisurely strode inside, confident that Oni Lee had finished them off. Coming into the main room, they were met with the sight of the mangled and scorched corpses of the former Empire members. A few of them chuckled at the site, but a couple newer members couldn't help but cringe.

"Damn…"A boy in a red cap said,"Glad Lee's on our side."

"I'm not. The guys creeps me out."Another teen in a green hoodie shivered.

"I don't care either way. So long as these Empire fucks get theirs. Bastards broke my little brother's leg a few months ago. Their days are numbered."

"Quiet!"An older man commanded,"We're here to steal whatever guns are left. Hurry up and grab what you can."

As they all went to collect whatever weapons they could get their hands on, the leader made a call.

"Report."Lung said over the phone.

"This location's clear sir."He said,"Lee finished things quickly and should be off to the next location." He looked around the room.

"It looks like they were able to get away with some of the weapons. So this place is less stacked than over at Drove street."

"Chen told me they were almost finished loading up, he'll send more people your way to help you load what's left. Once your done, take the weapons to 23rd st."

"Yes sir."He acknowledged before Lung hung up.

He breathed a sigh of relief. It was always a risk talking to Lung, you never knew what would set him off. Looking down at a tattooed man with his throat stabbed, he smirked before kicking the head. That freak Chimera had just done them a huge favor, with the Empire capes roster slashed in half, this was the perfect opportunity for them to strike and seize the gang's assets before eventually taking care of the rest of the gang. He admitted to being a little nervous about moving while the national guard was still here, but they and the Protectorate were now preoccupied with Chimera's reemergence. Leaving them to act without interference. And as of right now, the Empire is finished, and the ABB will rule this city.

A loud crash followed after a startled scream to his left.

He turned to see that one of the younger members had dropped a box, the ammunition inside scattering across the floor. He sneered, quick to march over and reprimand the idiot.

"What are you doing! If you can't lift the box then don't try it!"He scolded. The teen simply just stared ahead at the shadowed wall.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"He said while forcibly yanking the boy around to stare into his face. He was a bit surprised to see the boy's face had gone pale, but disregarded it.

"If you can't be trusted to do this on your own, then go and help the others."He said while shoving him towards the rest of the group. Glancing over at the wall, he simply raised an eyebrow and sneered before turning around and walking off to supervise the rest.

'His eyes must've been playing tricks on him.'He thought, disregarding the shiver that ran across his body.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

These shorter chapters are as easy as they are challenging.

Trying to keep the momentum going so that nothing feels rushed or slowed down can be a job in and of itself, not to mention trying to figure out what to put in between all the major events that are supposed to happen. But, such is the process.

Anyway, stay safe and have a good night.