Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, I know I did, and if you'd like I somewhat recently posted the first chapters of my first original fic, Beacon's Watch for y'all to take a peek at. I do not own the MCU(Which is encompassing a lot more as of late) or Ben 10. Italics are flashbacks, and emphasis (Brackets are telepathy). When we last saw our heroes they had entered the relatively safe haven of Dust Town, with a very familiar tour guide. Let's take a walk around town, shall we?

Infinity Chapter IX

Dust To Diamonds

Dust-Town, Date and Time Unknown

"Welcome to the Morlock's safe haven," Kevin stated, "Dust Town."

"Dust Town?" Ben queried, "That's the best you could come up with?"

"Got outvoted." Kevin said, nodding at several people as his convoy drove further into the shantytown, "Personally, I wanted to name the place Undertown."

Ben smirked, "So, you told me why you got wrapped up in all of this, but you haven't told me how?"

"Wait till we get back to my place." Kevin stated as he parked the truck, "We'll swap stories, like how you got involved with the Avengers."

"How do you know about them?" Ben asked, surprised.

"Hearsay, mostly." Kevin admitted, turning the truck off and opening the door, "Lots of folk around here were claiming they'd get back together, fix this, shut down the Dome. That talk dropped off after the second month of being stuck in here."

"Well," Ben said, watching the others exit the second car, "They're here now."

The two hopped out of the truck, Ben having a quick look around. They were standing in what could have been called a town square in a regular city, several small cobbled together houses surrounding them on all sides except straight ahead where a large building had been constructed out of concrete and what looked like the melted remains of subway cars.

"How did you build all this?" Daisy asked in amazement, "It's only been three months."

"Perseverance plus five telekinetics, one pyro, and about a dozen low-level Gammas." a new voice stated, drawing the assembled heroes' attention.

Leaning on the railing of the large building was a slight woman with short wild black hair, lightly tanned skin, dressed in a revealing black half-shirt, and black jeans. A frayed eye patch sat over her right eye while her remaining cerulean eye looked over the group with reserved interest. Ben noticed Kevin tense slightly at his side, as the woman's eye turned to him and a bright smile crossed her face. Her most definitive and slightly disarming feature, however, was her arms, which appeared to be made of vibrant green intertwined vines up to her shoulders.

She sauntered down the adjoining ramp, heading for Kevin first, resting, in Ben's opinion, a somewhat overly formal hand on his shoulder.

"So Crusher," the woman asked, her voice dripping seductively, "Are you just going to stand there looking pretty or are you going to introduce me?"

That Kevin managed to keep his composure was a marvel to Ben, "We've got regular superheroes in with us today Callisto, found them after they finished fighting a Gamma."

"Finished?" Callisto repeated, glaring around at them, her eye finally focusing on John's hefty rifle, "What do you mean finished?"

"Calm down Cal, they didn't do anything that Foley kid can't fix." Kevin consoled, placing a reassuring hand on her arm, "They're heroes, the Avengers apparently."

"I recognize the gaudy tin can." Callisto stated, her anger receding, replaced by wary curiosity once more, "So Mr. Stark, I thought the Avengers were kaput, what changed?"

"Gaudy tin can?!" Tony stated aghast, "Please lady it's gaudy titanium can if anything. As for what happened, SHIELD got the band back together, with a few new members as you can see."

"About three months too late if you ask me." Callisto deadpanned, looking around at the others, "And who are the rest of you?"

Tony stepped forward to introduce the others, "The lady with the near-constant smile is Wasp, directly next to her is hacker and shaker supreme Quake, the big man with the big gun is John Agent of SHIELD, and the man standing next to your friend is, uh, Xeno, yeah that works."

Ben raised an eyebrow at his impromptu alias, before turning to Callisto, "Nice to meet you."

Wasp waved cheerily while Daisy and Jon gave rather formal nods in the woman's direction.

"Before you say anything I know exactly why all of you are here," Callisto said, cutting Tony off.

"You're looking for Jacob Reece, a sweet little boy who is now lost in this utter wonderland right after Crusher," she paused, laying a hand on Kevin's shoulder, "Managed to get the poor kid and his mother out of here."

"I take responsibility for that." John stated, holstering his rifle, "My partner and I mishandled the situation, which sent Jacob into a minor panic attack and resulted in the activation of his powers."

"Those powers being?" Callisto asked all of her attention focused on John, allowing Kevin to extricate himself from her grasp.

"His father is Owen Reece." Daisy supplied, "And it appears Jacob inherited his abilities."

Callisto's eyes widened, "Well, that certainly complicates things doesn't it."

"Which is why we need to find him as quickly as we can." Wasp stated, "He's a scared little kid, lost and alone with insanely powerful abilities he doesn't understand."

Callisto nodded, "Alright then we're agreed to a point, we need to find Jacob. Luckily we have someone looking for him already. Come with me."

"I've got a few things I need to take care of first." Kevin stated, shooting Ben a quick glance, "Namely getting the Gamma to Foley. Go on without me."

"I can help you with that if you like?" Ben asked, drawing a suspicious look from Daisy and Tony. Ignoring the looks, he closed his eyes, his form changing to that of an at least twelve-foot tall tan lizard man. Callisto let out a low whistle of appreciation, while Jon's eyes widened slightly.

"I'll help too," Quake stated, stepping forward, shooting a furtive look between him and Kevin.

Kevin gave her a considering look, before turning back to Ben, "Thank you, miss, but I think your friend here will be all the help I need."

"Alright then." Callisto said with a roll of her shoulders, "I'll take the rest of you to see Ojo, hopefully when Crusher and the shapeshifter get back we'll have found Jacob."

Wasp and Jon followed her without a moment's hesitation, though the former sent Ben a questioning look as she went. Meanwhile, Daisy and Tony stayed a bit longer watching Crusher and Ben walk over to the truck with the Gamma in the back, which Ben's dinosaur-like form managed to lift effortlessly. The pair then walked off with Crusher leading the way.

"I'm going after them," Daisy muttered, moving to follow after them. Tony stuck his hand out, stopping her dead.

"Leave it," Tony said, watching them walk, the bug he'd place still recording their conversation.

"You're just going to let them walk away?" Daisy asked, astounded, "They're clearly hiding something from us. Whoever that really is, Ben knows them, and pretty well from their body language. He's utterly comfortable around them plus did you see the look Ben gave Callista when she started getting all touchy-feely with him?"

"Whatever is going on there will come out eventually." Tony reassured, "Who knows maybe they're were dating and the Dome threw a big wrench in the deal?"

"Really, that's the first thing you could come up with?" Quake asked with a slight smirk.

"I'm just spitballing Tremors, I wouldn't quote me on any of this." Tony snarked back, "Ben seems like a good person, I doubt that whatever this is is worth getting riled up about."

"I hope you're right," Daisy said, giving Ben one last look before following the others inside the building.

"So do I." Tony muttered to himself and Friday, "Up the volume."

"Got it boss" Friday responded, giving Tony a backseat to Ben and Kevin's conversation as he followed Daisy inside.

It had taken roughly ten minutes for Ben and Kevin to reach "Foley", who to the former's surprise was a fourteen-year-old kid whose entire body seemed to be coated in a layer of gold. He surprised Ben again when after softly laying his hands on the Gamma every single wound sealed shut. Leaving the pacified and sleeping Gamma in the boy's care Kevin and Ben set out, the latter back in human form simply to draw less attention to themselves as they walked.

Ben looked back, watching Foley wipe his brow tiredly before turning to talk to another new arrival at his makeshift clinic.

"Isn't he a little young to be the head doctor around here?" Ben asked, looking over at Kevin.

"He's not the head doctor, he's just the one we take people to when they're in a desperate need of a fix." Kevin explained, nodding appreciatively at several people that had stopped to let them pass, "There are a few nurses and med-techs here that got stuck under the Dome and help out how they can but this place can cook up all kinds of nasty unexpected things, plus we don't have a monopoly on medicine around here."

"Couldn't SHIELD help with that?" Ben asked, smiling kindly at a young girl as she ran past, her skin shifting from red to blue.

"SHIELD could certainly help with a lot of things." Kevin said, with just a hint of bitterness, "But the Dome itself makes it difficult, sometimes it feels like the damn thing has a mind of its own."

They walked in silence for a while before coming to a stop in front of what looked like a slapped together mechanic shop with vehicles similar to the one they'd rode in on parked beside it.

"Welcome to Casa de Levin." Kevin stated with a bit of levity, "Don't forget to take your shoes off when you get inside."

"Stuck in the middle of a wasteland and you decide to make a car shop." Ben muttered, shaking his head slightly, "Why am I not surprised."

"Just trying to get some familiarity back in my life man," Kevin noted, a somberness returning to the conversation.

Inside the house was every bit as ramshackle as the exterior with piecemeal furniture, some of which looked like Kevin had made himself. Kevin led him up a set of rickety stairs to the second level where two doorways opened up, to the left was a medium-sized room with a small cot, a three-legged table leaning against the nearest wall, and two slightly singed chairs. To the right was a smaller room, with a dinged up dresser, a collection of colorful lights made from bottles and scavenged light bulbs, and a single mattress that was currently occupied by a heavily sleeping young girl.

Kevin walked into the right room first, leaving Ben standing in the doorway. Looking over his friend's shoulder he took in the blonde hair, pale skin, an almost painfully thin frame and to his surprise arms that tapered off into large black wings, with small clawed three-fingered hands.

"Who is she?" Ben asked, watching as Kevin carefully, almost fatherly pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The girl muttered something in her sleep but didn't wake instead scrunching her face deeper into the pillow.

"Her names Fiona." Kevin said, his hands clenching slightly, "From what I've gotten her to tell me she's a runaway like I was. She was wandering the streets the night the Dome appeared and as you can see it changed her."

"However the Morlocks weren't the first to find her the Watchdogs were." Kevin stated a look of pure hatred on his face as he turned to look at Ben, "Think of them like the Forever Knights, minus the bullshit they spewed about chivalry and knighthood. They're all about human purity, meaning anyone different, like me, like Fiona, like every single person trapped down here is nothing but a stain to get rid of."

"How'd she get away?" Ben asked, noticing the all to familiar feral smile Kevin got when his darker side came out.

"She got lucky, managed to make a break for it right after they found her." Kevin said, but the anger failed to fade, "They broke her arm, did some other vial things that I don't want or care to mention, and then she ran into me. So did the Watchdogs chasing her, which was very, very bad for them."

Ben gave him a pointed look but Kevin shrugged it off, "They deserved what they got, shattered limbs mostly. After that I brought Fiona back here, Joshua patched her up, and I offered her a place to stay until I could get her out of the Dome. Thing is, she doesn't want to leave and she's not the only one."

"Why?" Ben asked, as Kevin stood up and lead him over to the other room.

"Because she's scared of what normal folks will do to her when they see what she looks like." Kevin said, sitting down at the table, "Many of the folks around here that can't pass as human are, you can thank the Watchdogs for that shit too, and the Gamma Core."

"I thought the Gamma Core was with SHIELD?" Ben asked, leaning against the wall across from Kevin.

"It is nominally, but the folks are jaded, colored by the destruction Gamma Mutants have caused in the past." Kevin explained, "Like your new friend Dr. Banner."

"How do you know all this?" Ben asked again.

"It's been three months since we got dropped here man, most of its hearsay and things I've been told, other stuff I picked up while out exploring the Dome and interacting with the few SHIELD stooges I believe are trustworthy." Kevin stated, "But more to the fact, how did you get roped into the Avengers?"

"Like I said I'll tell you after you tell me how you wound up being one of the head-honchos around here, 'Crusher'," Ben stated, smirking slightly.

"Okay, first off I didn't pick the nickname, Callisto gave it to me." Kevin started, holding up a hand to stop Ben from making an outburst, "Second of all before you say anything yes, I am very aware she wants to jump my bones, I'm dealing with it."

Ben made a face that was a mixture of disgust and a smirk before letting Kevin continue, "And as for how I got here, it's pretty simple. Callisto and her gang found me after I'd fought off a couple of Albedo's fucked up creations and took me under their wing. That was three days after we landed here, around the same time I started learning about everything, where we were, who the Morlocks and Watchdogs were, and that more importantly people needed someone familiar with trekking around a wasteland under a haunting red sky. Guess who fits the bill?"

"I started going out on solo excursions, finding folks and bringing them back to Dust Town, finding supplies we could us, making contact with the quickly expanding SHIELD outposts, and after the second month started bringing people that wanted to leave to safety like Jacob and his mom. People started joining me, looking at me like a leader...guess Servantis got one thing right when he was conditioning me. About a week into the second month here, I had a posse that was calling themselves the "Crusher's Crew", a bit embarrassing I know but what are you gonna do. The thing is though, the first time I went out and most times I go out still I'm only looking for one person…"

"Gwen." Ben finished, a great weight seeming to settle on his shoulders as he plopped down into the seat across from Kevin, "Kev, I'm sorry man but what I have to say next you aren't going to like."

Daisy was annoyed, partly because Ben had been gone off nearly an hour now, and partly because no one else seemed to be giving that little fact any attention. Callisto didn't care an ounce about Ben being missing, why would she, though Daisy could tell she wanted "Crusher" back from wherever they'd gotten off too. Janet and John were too interested in finding Jacob to give Ben much thought, both of them peppering Callisto with questions, direct serious ones from the SHIELD Agent while Wasp would pipe up with random seemingly nonsensical questions, though Daisy could tell she was fishing for info that could be useful later on. Tony meanwhile was staring off into space, an annoying contented smile on his face as leaned back in his chair, both feet firmly resting on the table.

She decided to instead focus on the other people in the room with them, a hooded eerily silent figure that Callisto had introduced as Porter, who's very presence put Daisy on edge though she couldn't figure out why and Ojo, a young man that couldn't be older than seventeen of Hispanic descent dressed in tattered jeans, a deep green hoodie, and battered sneakers. His most distinctive feature as his nickname suggested was the large, vibrant green cyclopean eye that sat in the center of his forehead. The eye was rolled back in his head as he wrote down notes in a pen and occasionally spoke up with information that he thought was important for Callisto to know.

"Find anything yet hombrecito? Callisto asked, nudging the young man softly.

"No I...wait," Ojo stated, a light suddenly shining from his eye onto the table, a blurry image beginning to form.

"What is it?" Wasp asked, staring intently at the shifting image, "Did you find Jacob?"

"No." Ojo stated almost robotically, listing slightly in his seat, "A family on the docks near Ryker's Island, the youngest child has visible mutations, vibrant pink skin, and tentacles for hair, there's a Watchdog patrol on foot headed right towards them and one of those things."

"Porter go!" Callisto commanded, a black-and-white image taking shape of a huddled family resting inside a heavily looted store-front before zooming off towards a heavily armed group of Watchdogs approaching from the West, in turn being followed by a creature that looked exactly like the one that had attacked Ben, excluding the massive metal claw in place of its right hand.

The mysterious figure left the room without a word, a crackling popping noise sounding as he reached the doorway, the cloak he was wearing crumpling to the ground as he seemingly disappeared.

"Porter." Tony noted, with an impressed look, "Fitting name."

"It should be." Callisto mocked, "He picked it out himself."

"What are those things?" John asked, nodding at the skittering red-and-black creature as it leaped off the roof towards the Watchdogs, the image cutting out as Ojo wisely turned his gaze elsewhere, "One attacked us earlier, and SHIELD lost a few personal to them as well."

"We have no idea." Callista grimaced, "We didn't know they were even out there at first. We would just find signs, people brutally ripped apart, a strange red-and-black liquid that would twitch and writhe if you got near it, shadows in the dark stalking people we sent out looking for food."

She visibly shuddered before continuing onward, "Then we caught a break after Crusher brought one back, he'd killed it though judging by the way he looked it wasn't an easy fight at all."

"And?" Tony asked, sitting forward.

"Whatever they are, they're not human or even anything living honestly." Callisto stated, "Under that twitchy red-and-black goop they're mostly metal with bits of odd stone embedded here and there."

"Odd how?" John asked.

"They're covered in glowing purple markings, and psychics we have that have gotten near them get nosebleeds and roaring headaches," Callisto explained.

"Would you happen to have any of this stuff on hand?" Tony asked, deeply intrigued.

"No." Callisto stated, "Crusher destroyed much of it personally, after seeing what it did."

"Seeing what, what did?" Crusher asked, drawing everyone's attention, excluding Ojo who had gone quite lost in his search. Ben walked in after him, and Daisy noted that both men seemed tense by the postures they carried while entering the room. Crusher, in particular, had a dejected air about him, but quickly schooled it as he took a seat across from Tony.

Ben paused for a moment, before plopping down next to Daisy, doing his best to ignore her probing stare.

"What took you both so long?"Quake asked, leaning in closer to Ben, noticing his left eye twitch slightly before turning to face her, phasing out the conversation going on beside her.

"We found Foley, who turned out to be a fourteen-year-old boy with borderline miraculous healing powers." Ben explained, "And then Crusher, took me aside and probed me for information."

"You give him anything?" Daisy prodded, once again noting the twitch.

"No." Ben responded, "I told him that I just woke up from a coma, and didn't know much about what he was asking me."

"How'd he take that?" Daisy asked, looking over at Crusher, who was listening to Tony's questions attentively.

"He didn't take it all that well." Ben stated, his eyes downcast, "But what about you did you find Jacob yet?"

"No." Daisy answered, silently taking note of the blatant redirection, "But hopefully we will soon."

They both turned back to the greater conversation, catching Crusher's final response to Tony.

"We run into any more of those things while we're out there getting Jacob, then you're happy to pick them apart yourself." Crusher stated, sitting back in his chair, "But I think you should know that one that went after you and your friend here, is a tough son of a bitch."

"How so?" Tony asked, inching close to the table.

"It's willy, won't throw everything into a fight as the others do." Crusher explained, "It doesn't just rip people apart either, not all the time anyway. I've chased it off a few times, and the folks it's killed look, drained is the only way I can think of putting it."

"Drained how?" Quake asked, taking in the disgusted slightly frightened looks Callisto and Crusher shot each other before the latter answered.

"Their skin becomes near paper-thin with this harsh ashy grey color to it, their faces are almost skeletal in appearance." he stated, his fist clenching ever so slightly as he continued, "Men, women, children, the random stray animal, all of them looking like they've been mummified."

As he finished Daisy took stock of her companions, John's face hard hardened, Jan had paled considerably, while Tony was staring straight ahead, his brain most likely thinking up a smattering of ideas on what this thing was. She turned to look at Ben, and he just returned her glance with a cold stare, his fists trembling slightly.

"It's like it sucks the life out of them." Callisto finished.

"And that's not the most worrying part of the damn thing." Crusher stated, "I'm not one-hundred percent sure about this, but I'm pretty sure under all that gunk is a person."

"How did you deduce that?" John asked, a hint of skepticism entering his voice.

"It can bleed." Crusher returned, "I got into a fight with it once, one of the toughest fights of my life, but I got lucky managed to cut it from sternum to below its ribs. And unlike the rest which just oozed more of that tarry liquid, blood started pouring from the wound. It let out this horrifying scream, and bull-rushed me, tackling me to the ground before racing off, running away as fast as it could."

"Well to quote a favorite governor of mine, if it bleeds we can kill it," Tony remarked, with a slight chuckle.

"My thoughts exactly." Crusher noted, smirking slightly, "The only problem is I haven't been able to catch it yet, not since the first go around."

Any further remarks were cut short by a massive explosion that rocked the entire building and judging by the shouts of shock and fear coming from outside all of Dust Town as well. Ojo gasped loudly, an image flickering to life slowly, as the dust settled.

"What the hell was that?!" John asked, standing to his feet abruptly, fighting to get his rifle over his shoulder.

"Are we under attack?" Callisto demanded, looking back and forth between Ojo and the blurry image, "Ojo report!"

"You wanted to find Jacob Reece." Ojo stated, gesturing to the image as it came into focus, "There you have it."

It showed an aerial view of a smoking crater, which seemed to extend past the bounds of the projection, the assembled group watch in shock as several buildings crumpled forward into the pit, parts of their foundation and walls shorn away by the blast radius. One building slammed into the dead center of the crater, it's motion dissipating the smoke to reveal a large crystalline structure that pierced the building as it fell, it remains severing around it and leaving it utterly unharmed.

"Jacob Reece, is currently sitting directly at the center of that crystal structure," Ojo informed the group.

"Why?" Ben asked, "What prompted him to do this?"

"That," Ojo stated, the image shifting rapidly to show the smoking, twitching body of one of the creatures at the very edge of the blast radius.

Wasp let out a shocked gasp as the creature sat up, and shook itself, before opening its mouth and screaming at the sky, a long black sinuous tongue emerging from its mouth.

"There's your special case Sir," Ojo stated, nodding his head slightly in Crusher's direction.

"Where are they?" Crusher demanded, standing up, the others joining him in a fluid motion.

"A block north of us." Ojo stated, "I believe Jacob was trying to find his way back here when the creature ambushed him. And it appears that there are more on the way to him right now, most likely drawn by the explosion."

"Or you're special friend is calling them there." Tony noted, staring across the table at Kevin, "It's probably the leader, source of a joint hive mind, their creator perhaps, good old patient zero?"

"Whatever it is we can't let it get anywhere near Jacob," Wasp stated, shrinking down and flitting out the doorway.

"You heard the lady." Tony stated, racing out the door with John a step behind, "Let's move people, Crusher you with us?"

Crusher looked over at Callisto who nodded, "I'll try and get some people together to help you but you need to go now."

Daisy followed the former out the door, Ben falling into step beside her.

"You up for a fight like this?" Daisy asked allowed, looking between Ben and Crusher. The former nodded silently, as he slid his hand along the wall, his skin taking on the same craggy texture and sheen.

"We've been in worse," Ben stated, becoming something blue, lithe, and reptilian and was gone in a burst of wind leaving Quake with an unanswered question on her lips.

And scene. Man, I haven't touched this story in a while but it's good to be back! Not much action in this chapter, but don't worry the Under the Dome min-arc while be reaching a triumphant and exciting conclusion next chapter, though that doesn't mean this is the last time we will be seeing the Dome far from it, other plot points will be taking precedent, however. I also hope you took notice of a light sprinkling of characters I've inserted into Dust Town, which will be a major stomping ground for our group of misfits for some time to come. So Daisy is getting an inkling that something is off with Ben, while Tony...well Tony knows almost the whole shebang minus one big glaring factoid. Those will also come to a head next chapter. As always leave any comments, critiques, or questions you may have. VerBeek Signing Off!