Woo, another Ben 10 chapter! About time, am I right!?
Sorry for the long time, no update. I've been busy. You can see that on my Discord and Twitter.
After this, I'll be gone from June 2nd to June 21st. I'll be camping with my best friends.
I wanted this to be longer, but unfortunately, I don't have the time and want to get this out. There may be more mistakes than usual, but I need to get this out to you guys to have a clear conscience, lol.
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Anywho, enjoy!
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Another week of inactivity and Ben was currently enjoying himself with a nice game of classic Sumo Slammers, "Oh yeah, now this is how you spend a Saturday," he snickered.
Things were calm, naturally too calm, but Ben figured they would handle the problem once anything pops up. Besides, he was human and he could afford some time for himself. And today was pretty much his off day, a rare total off day that he could totally have.
"Yeah!" Ben cheered, "Score surpassed!" Then he felt his Omnitrix vibrate from a call he was getting. He checked it out and was happily surprised, "Hey, look who it is."
"Hey, long time, no see," Kevin greeted him.
"Hey, Ben," Gwen spoke up, sounding slightly more distant. They were probably on the road as they spoke and Gwen on the front passenger side.
"Just wanted to call and let you know that we're on our way over, we're feelin' a bit homesick," Kevin told him with a light chuckle at the end.
Ben quirked a brow, a little surprised to hear him say that though it was probably more than that. It wasn't that long since they had to leave town, "Already? Hasn't been that long."
"That long? Jeez, Ben, you weren't missing us?" Kevin replied with mock hurt.
"For the record, Kevin wanted to look at some spare parts and I wanted to visit the market myself. Bellwood is surprisingly advanced," Gwen told him before quickly adding, "Not that we didn't miss you or anything. It'll be great to see you and how you're doing."
"Right," Ben drawled, finally finishing his game and putting his full focus on the call, "I'm not doing anything so, meet you guys at Mr. Smoothies?"
"Yes," Kevin sounded oddly excited about that before coughing into his hand, "Sounds good, bro. We'll be there in less than half an hour."
"See ya, Ben," Gwen told them before they hung up. He shrugged it off, just happy to hear that family was back in town. It would be nice to have the team back, even just for a short while.
That's when the door was kicked open, revealing Lucy with a Cheshire grin before she gleefully shouted, "Holy crap, cousin Gwen and her metal headed boyfriend are back!"
"Gah! Lucy, that's three times!" Ben shouted, hand over his chest trying to grasp his erratically beating heart, "Yeah, I'm gonna head over to Mr. Smoothies-"
"We!" Lucy immediately corrected before grabbing his hand and laughing, "Come on, come on, this will be great! And I have a way better idea than that place!"
Ben sighed and let himself get dragged off without his jacket. Another round of smoothies and Sumo Slammers would have to wait until later. Not that he could complain. It was gonna be a nice day.
"Wait, better than Mr. Smoothies?"
XXXXX
"And how long was this!l here?" Asked Gwen as they arrived at Undertown. Gwen and Kevin were introduced to the hustle and bustle of the underground alien market. Aliens inside big transports, big aliens riding odd flying scooters, merchants selling all sorts of alien fruits, knickknacks and other goods.
Kevin whistled as his eyes landed on some alien tech, "They sell actual high quality Dark Matter engines here? Now that's a good sign."
"Pretty coool, huh Gwen?" Asked Lucy as she got a little too close to her cousin's face.
"Yeah," Drawled Gwen, "I'll just take a look at some of the… fruits around here," She was checking out a row of orange balls that had typical capped mushroom growths on them.
"Actually, Miss Tennyson, those are children's balls," Rook informed her.
"Oh… not eggs?" Gwen was surprised she didn't make that mistake.
"No, those are to your right actually," Rook told her, walking up to her for a further conversation, Lucy right behind him.
"Tennyson, listen me," kevin had his arm around Ben's shoulder and roped him away from the group, Gwen doing her best to distract herself from Lucy, and failing, and Rook, who was also roped in, going around to find some fresh and edible fruit, "Is there place around here that I could say… hide myself?"
"What?" Was Ben's immediate response, "hide from what? Lucy? You're not exactly her target right now."
Behind them, Lucy transformed into Kevin and made kissy faces at Gwen, much to her annoyance.
"No, not her," Kevin did a glance at her, "At least for now. I just need a good place to hide."
"We'll knowing a who would - don't," Ben tried to stop him from opening a small door only for Kevin to open it and go in headfirst.
Inside was a small alien apparently, while scrolling on some tablet, using the restroom. The alien noticed and immediately threw something at him, "Ey, Occupodo, Sharg's ass!"
"Yeah, Get a lock!" Kevin growled back before slamming then kicking the door. He turned to a deadpan Ben. He shrugged, "So you want a who?" Ben nodded and Kevin continued, "the person is complicated."
Ben folded his arms, "Okay, does that mean hiding is gonna be complicated?"
"Maybe," Kevin told him with a blank look.
"Possibly a lot of destruction," Ben pried further.
"Maybe," Kevin answered the same way again.
"Okay, who exactly are you hiding from?" Ben was tired of the runaround. Kevin had a sketchy past, but he wasn't usually all oddly fearful and secretive about it.
"Hiding from who?" Gwen's voice suddenly came in, making Kevin jump.
He quickly got himself together "Uh, from her," he pointed at Lucy, transforming her face for the amusement of small kids. She noticed the others looking at her then waved.
"She's not your target," Gwen muttered, "Lucky. Anyway, who are you hiding from?"
"Now, what would make you assume such a thing?" Kevin asked, holding his hand up like he was innocent. Gwen just looked at him and he caved, "Okay, look as you know, I-"
"Hey, Ben!" The voice of Ester called out to him as her leg stretched down. The rest came a second later with a Mr. Smoothies bag, "Got your text and figured I'd come and meet you."
Kevin spotted this as his moment and with a cheeky grin spoke, "Oh, Tennyson, who's the Kraaho?"
Ben noticed and glared at him for a split second before going back to a nice default smile, "A friend I made after helping the town is all."
"Hi, name's Ester," She said with a wave before she went a bit star struck, "Wow, Gwen Tennyson and Kevin Levin, that's cool."
"Yeah, I'm pretty cool," Kevin said with a smirk that turned into a light chuckle when Gwen elbowed him.
"Don't mind him, it's to meet you," Gwen replied with a smile. "I didn't know Ben was getting more social."
"Me and Ester just occasionally text. I was free and she asked to hangout today. Didn't expect you guys though," Ben explained.
Ester went on for him, "Luckily, he told me about it and said I could stop by… or hangout if you guys didn't mind."
"Of course we don't mind," Gwen told her, with Lucy and Rook, having come over, nodding.
Kevin was apprehensive, "Uh, no offense but, I don't think that's the best idea."
Gwen was about to ask why Kevin thought that way until an explosion very close by put the conversation on hold and Ben let out an explosive sigh.
A large hovering alien bike, black and dark gold, hovered over them. Everyone took a defensive stance, save for Kevin who was slowly backing away, as the latch popped open. From it, came forth an imposing tetramand woman. Tall, muscular, a very healthy figure that made Lucy let out a whistle. In her bottom right hand was Argit, barely able to breathe.
She grinned and they all noticed she was looking at Kevin. Or rather, in Kevin's direction as he was running away. She cheerfully said, "Aw, Kevin, why play hard to get!?"
"Tell him I'm sorry," Argit croaked out before he was thrown to the side like a used tissue and the tetramand jumped after him, leaping from roof to roof.
Ben pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned, "Goddamnit, Kevin."
"Ben, this is probably why he was trying to hide, wasn't it," Gwen asked. It was clear the question was very rhetorical.
Something Rook didn't catch onto, "If he was trying to hide, it was indeed probably because of that."
Farther away, Kevin ran until he accidentally bumped into an alien inside some metal suit and was forced into an alley. He could hear the thuds and jumps of super strong tetramand legs getting closer and closer, so he immediately went to some steel and absorbed it's properties. It was not for fighting purposes.
"Kevin! And just where have you been?" Asked the Tetramand as she slammed her top right fist and bottom left fist into her palms, "I hope you weren't hiding all this time."
"What, me hide!? Never!" Kevin quickly told her, holding his hands up, "I just sort of lost track of time and -"
"Really!?" The Tetramand growled before sprinting over, throwing a haymaker that could've caved Kevin's head in had he not ducked, "Speak the truth!" she roared as she swung around and Kevin scrambled back, falling on his butt in his effort to avoid her swing.
"There was an earthquake! By a kaiju!" The Tetramand growled and shook the ground by punching it, making Kevin wobble as he tried to stand, "Please, that wasn't my fault, I - mph!"
She grabbed Kevin by the face and his left arm before spin tossing the screaming guy into the air. She jumped after him and punched him, her lefts connecting with his face and body, sending him into a shack.
kevin groaned and got back up, two prominent dents on his chest and face with some shrapnel embedded into his back. She landed in front of him and Kevin had another idea, "Did I mention I was attacked by time pirates… that's real."
"I don't care if the whole universe detonated, you left me and did not return!" She growled, now pulling out a double sided hammer, "And now I will take what is mine!"
"Please, babe… it wasn't my fault," Kevin groaned as he fell to his knees. She was about to strike until a blue blur zoomed by and moved Kevin out of the way, leaving the ground to be struck instead. A small shockwave was made by the force of the blow, causing the wreckage to all over the place.
The warrior was surprised and immediately turned towards the sound of the zoom and saw Kevin several meters away, a nice few leaps away. She was about to rush over until she felt a hard thump across her face followed by another against her face. Then she heard someone tap against the back of her helmet and turned to see Ben in his XLR8 form.
"Rather than make a mess and kill my friend, wanna talk this out?" Ben asked as he leaned against a shack, "This all seems excessive."
"Excessive!?" She growled, "I'll show you excessive!" she roared before lunging at him only for him to zoom past, breaking through the shack.
"Have it your way!" Ben told her before zooming past her.
"Ngh!" Ben got another blow on her bottom jaw before zooming past again to punch the back of her head. She swung her hammer just as Ben came in, missing him by a third of a meter, throwing him off before he got another punch in.
With flourishing spin of her weapon, the Tetramand slammed her hammer down and caused a stronger shockwave that sent Ben and more wreckage flying. The hero made a dent in another shack.
"Okay, changing strategy," Ben said as he got up. He went wide eyed hearing the warrior's war cry again and immediately zipped out of the way as she came down with her hammer.
"You're out of your depth, Kinccelerren!" She snarled, taking shack parts in her bottom two hands before throwing them at Ben, faster than he expected, "You're not meant for combat!"
"Maybe not!" Ben noticed the Proto - Truk flying towards them and grinned under the mask, "But that isn't my main goal."
The warrior was about to strike again until she heard a loud boom and was struck by a missile to the back that sent her flying. Ben immediately held his hands up as he saw Lucy riding on top. with her outstretched mud, she reeled him in and they were off, leaving behind a further irate Tetramand behind.
"Do you - " Pakmar was about to complain about the wreck in his shop, but the glare he got immediately made him gulp and walk back into his office without any further word.
XXXXX
They quickly flew within the depth of the sewers and landed somewhere not too far from the outside world. Once they were pulled over, Gwen immediately grabbed Kevin by his ear and dragged him outside before putting him against the wall. Her glare said it all.
Kevin sighed and said, "so, you want an explanation."
Gwen's glare intensified, "No, Kevin. I just want to stand here and glare at you."
"Really? No, I'm not that lucky," he grumbled out before holding his hands up just as Argit and Lucy came outside with the rest of the crew, "Look, a few years ago me and Argit went to Koros to get our hands on some sick, essentially indestructible Tetramand engines. And in order to do that, I had to play nice with their king… and their princess, looma Redwind."
"Long story short, Kevin is basically hitched to her," Argit shrugged with a grin before Kevin immediately rushed over to choke out his rodent companion.
"Why you little piece of -" Gwen immediately used her mana to restrain and then turn her boyfriend around to face her, giving Argit the chance to take in some sewage air.
"So you basically played with a poor girl's heart for car parts?" Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose and let Kevin down.
Ben shook his head, leaning against a wall, "Couldn't you, I don't know, pull some other type con?"
"Not do any of that at all?" Ester piped up, her arms folded and gave Kevin a scolding look.
"Or just steal it?" Lucy added.
Rook proceeded to scold, "That's not very becoming, Lucy."
"But we're talking about past Kevin, not now Kevin!" Lucy argued indignantly.
Kevin wasn't having it and jabbed his finger at them, "Hey, none talk like you know how we do, or uh, did do things!" then he turned back to Gwen, "And poor girl my dented cheek bones, did you see her out there? This isn't exactly a classic romantic conflict."
"Kevin, bottom line is you screwed over a woman in the past, she's back now, and you need to make amends," Gwen told him as she folded her arms.
Kevin shrugged, "What, by getting beaten into concrete?"
Gwen placed her hand on his shoulder, "No, by talking this out. We've done this before."
"Yeah, after my car broke," Gwen started glaring again, "what? And how come you're not… well, ya know?"
"What, jealous? Oh please," Gwen rolled her eyes.
Rook suddenly stood in the middle of the group and asked, "Wait? Does anyone else hear that?" Behind him and Lucy, Argit was slowly backing away.
They all listened closely and quicker than than a second, that's when they heard the roar of an engine. Then blaster fire from below.
The group immediately dived and rolled out of harm's way as Looma's bike came through. She was quickly out of it and made a grab for Kevin until Lucy used her mud arm to block them, "Ew!"
"Hey, rude!" Lucy shot her other arm out, but Looma threw her hammer above Lucy's head and caused some pipe water to splash on most of her left side, "Oh crap!" she cried out as she became too mushy to stay up.
"Pathetic," Looma grunted before immediately seizing Kevin by his neck with her bottom right. Ester moved in to wrap around her, but Looma simply grabbed her and jerked her hand back upwards, making Ester hit her head on the ceiling.
"No you don't," Shouted Ben as he cycled through his Omnitrix. He saw four arms and grinned, "Alright Princess, let's see you handle," He slammed it down and he transformed into, "Swampfire… wait, what?"
"A puny plant creature, ha!" Looma laughed before sending another shockwave with her hammer that launched everyone back, also subsequently getting a bit of Lucy on everyone.
"Ah, ew!" Groaned Gwen while Argit had the misfortune of having to cough her out.
Ben groaned and Kevin screamed, "Feel free to help, guys!" as Looma carried him off through a sewer that led outside.
Ben jumped after them and used his vines to reel in closer into the sewage. She just turned the corner that led topside and he muttered, "Okay, this slip up might be good," he looked up and saw some openings, ones he could squeeze through with his body, but, "Yeah, this is gonna hurt."
XXXXX
"Hey, uh, what about your bike?" Asked Kevin with a shaky voice as they made it outside and into a construction zone.
"What about it?" Asked Looma. Kevin was about to answer until a small rumbling was heard and suddenly, Ben popped out of the ground and uppercutted the princess, though she didn't lose her grip on Kevin. In midair, Ben followed up with throwing seeds by her feet and having her pinned to the ground.
"Feel free to get out of the way," Ben shouted as a vine wrapped particularly harshly around the arm carrying Kevin. Kevin managed to squeeze out and ran off while the vines pulled down. Ben kept his distance and asked Looma, "Ready to talk it out now?"
"No, but now you're getting my interest!" Roared Looma as she ripped herself from the vines, "Ben, Ben… I feel like I've heard that before."
Ben blinked, "You… you know who I am right?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Prince Looma casually answered with a shrug before jumping back and grabbing a steel beam, "But I know what you're going to be!"
She swung it at him and Ben backflipped into the air as a response before unleashing a torrent of fire from his hands at her. Considering Tetramands were pretty heat resistant, this wouldn't exactly be unheroic.
But she was faster than that and leaped towards him, blocking the flames with all of her forearms, ramming into Ben and causing them to crash into the construction site.
Ben grunted as he hit the ground, holding his head for a brief moment until he was forced to roll out or the way as Princess Looma came crashing down with her hammer. Once Ben was back on his feet, he moved into point blank range to fire a stream of sleeping spores at her. He smirked, assured she would go down.
Instead, she let out a yawn. It was rather cute until she spun her hammer as she lifted it upwards to send Ben flying into the air. She followed up with a jump to catch Ben in the air, spinning him around in the air before landing on a car with Ben the first to touch down. His body was flattened and splayed out atop the wreckage, but his Methonosian body let him survive.
Princess looma looked upon him with utter disappointment, "If you're famous, I hope it's not for your fighting skills," then she raised her hammer to finish him off. Once she brought it down, pink mana blocked the finishing blow, "What?"
"That'll be enough of that!" growled Gwen, now in her Anodite form. She was a mix of her modern attire and a callback to her Lucky Girl days.
She clasped her hands together and wrapped Looma in a mana bubble before lifting her into the air. She levitated her over before bringing her back down extra hard, "We're going to talk this out like adults or I'm going to make you talk it out!"
Instead of an appropriate response to such a situation, the Princess only laughed, "As if some girl with sparkly rays or whatever can command me!"
Gwen growled and clasped her hands harder, but instead of getting tighter, the mana bubble was starting to shatter as Looma flexed. With the room, the princess struck with all of her hands at a concentrated point and shattered it.
Gwen was shocked and this left her open as Looma charged at her only for Kevin to shove her out of the way and Lucy formed another wall of mud. Again, Lucy was scattered all over the place, but Kevin and Gwen were protected.
"Oh, ew!" Looma gagged again.
"Is this gonna be a constant with you?" Lucy grumbled as she slowly came back together.
"Enough of these games! Kevin will marry me as promised or else!" Looma roared as the team assembled around her, Kevin absorbing metal, Gwen with mana around her hands, Rook with his Proto - Tool, Lucy partially formed, Ester in a combat stance, and Ben back in his human form, but his watch ready.
"You go, guys!" Argit shouted from behind a parked car.
Before another round could ensue a ship landed in the clearing. A huge black, gold, and white ship. As it opened, several heavily Tetramand shoulders came out and behind them, came their leader. Huge, intimidating, and clearly seasoned judging from his eyepatch and severed arm, "Looma!"
"Daddy!" She shouted happily before running into him to give him a huge hug.
He gasped before petting her, "You get stronger every day," he chuckled.
"Daddy?" Muttered Ester.
"Probably the king… shit," Ben answered back.
"And you must be the warriors of Earth… or crooks. I know those two are no doubt less than reputable," The king said as he pointed at Kevin and Argit, "I am King Gar of house Redwind and I am here along with my royal fleet to bring in Kevin," as he said that, fleets manifested high above the city. Atmosphere almost made them unnoticeable, "If you keep this up, I will be forced to plunder this entire area. Perhaps start an interplanetary war should you choose to escalate things further."
"For one guy!" Shouted Ester, "This really seems extremely excessive and I've seen excessive!"
"For my daughter really. Why, I'd blow up your sun," Gar told her with a casual shrug.
"Oh, daddy, that's so sweet!" Looma said nearly tearfully as she hugged him.
""Aww,"" Ester and Gwen could help but coo.
"Definitely not," muttered Rook.
Around them, a wall formed into some arena mixed in with a cathedral. They even had an old, skinny, bearded priest who began to read vows.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Ben shouted as he stepped forward to Gar and Looma, both glaring at him. He glared right back and said, "This is totally out of line! I'm challenging this whole thing!"
Gar and Looma now looked at him with interest. Gar casually said, "Well, if it is allowed on the groom's side."
"Yes, totally acceptable, let's go!" Levin immediately answered.
Gar laughed and clapped his hands together, "Spectacular! Guards, bring the others to the altar, we shall spectate! Good battle, daughter!" the guards took all the others up except for Ben and Looma walked towards him, cracking all of her knuckles.
"Wait, we're doing this?" Ben looked at Looma and went wide-eyed before immediately cycling through aliens, "Fourarms, Fourarms, Fourams!" he shouted before reaching it. He immediately slapped his hands down and received, "Rath! Let me tell you something, Omnitrix that's clearly on the fritz, this ain't bad, but Rath wanted Fourarms! Whatever, Rath ain't a bad second! In fact, he's better!"
"Oh, a new fur coat, just ripe for the taking!" Laughed Looma.
Ben snarled at that before he roared, "Let me tell you something, Princess Looma of house Redwind and psychotic bride to be! Rather you turn into a fur coat, then he's gonna turn your dad into a fur coat, so he can have two and not wear them!"
"Ohoho, I like this one!" Laughed Gar.
Ben roared and sprinted on all fours while Looma charged, not bothering to reach for her hammer. She wanted to fight with her bare hands as it was clear Ben was going to use his own natural weaponry.
A shockwave was unleashed by the power of their fists meeting head to head.
This was going to be a nice wedding showdown.
XXXXX
AN: I know, very little changed from canon, but I was scrambling to get something out. But I promise you, the divergence is coming, hell, you have to admit, there is divergence here just from timing alone. It's not and excuse, but please bare with me.
No, Ruex12, it's not completely the same, that's a genuine exaggeration but, I agree in a sense it's essentially the same, the events is what you mean, and that's true. But its for a purpose. I would've done more 6, but timing was not on my side.
