Greetings ladies and gentlemen, it's Shinobi360 here once again,now with the chapter 2 of my Ben 10 and Teen Titans crossover story; Finding Hope. I wanted to include this alongside the summary of the story but unfortunately I had already passed the word count when writing the summary,so I'll include it in every chapter of this story I upload.This story is heavily inspired by The Youngest Titan by Ben10Herotime.This chapter I feel will make that statement even more obvious than before,as it's going to take huge inspiration from the first chapter of that story but with my own twist of course. With all that said and done, let's begin.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or Teen Titans. They are both owned by Cartoon Network and DC Comics respectively.
ENJOY!
Chapter 2:Our Time to Shine
Location: Jump City
Time: 9:30 PM
We follow our young hero,Ben Tennyson as he is walking through the streets of Jump City with his hands in his pocket. Beside him is a man with a yellow collared short sleeve shirt,ash jeans and orange hair in a mullet. This is Ben's uncle Manny Tennyson,who was walking alongside his nephew as the latter wished to explore a bit of city while the day hadn't fully gone by yet. The eleven-year-old didn't know much about this city when he first heard of it apart from the fact that one of his relatives lived here. When Ben first saw pictures of it,he saw it initially as a weird combination of Boston and San Francisco, but even with such a limited understanding of the city,he didn't let that deter him from coming here . The forces that drove him here involved both himself and his family after all. As to why they were walking around the streets of Jump City so late in the night,it was simple. After Grandpa Max dropped off Ben with his uncle Manny, Ben wanted to walk around the streets of Jump while he was catching up with his uncle. He believed that it would help him open up more. His uncle obliged, although he insisted that the farthest they would go for the night was a favorite diner of his,to which the boy agreed.
Close to their destination,Ben made a sudden stop in front of a TV store, drawing his uncle's attention, and bringing both of them to look at the TVs through the glass window. The news was on and was going on about how much crime is active in Jump City. According to the news station, it's about as the same rate as Gotham City.
"Was it always like this, Uncle Manny?" Asked Ben.
"No Ben, not quite. No one quite knows what brought this sudden change, but most suspect that it's because of how much organized crime has involved in Gotham,that petty thieves and low time mobsters don't have much of a shot anymore." Answered Manny.
"So most of the small time baddies came to Jump because they felt it would be easy pickings?" Theorized Ben.
"You could say that." Answered Manny again, leaving Ben to look at the Tv again, only with a more downcast expression.
Ben understood that crime was a universal phenomenon,no matter how peaceful a city marketed itself being. Though, that didn't stop him from feeling a sense of duty to help whenever he could.
"You don't have to worry about it too much. To our knowledge, no crime is ongoing right now. But if there was,I know you will do the right thing." Encouraged Manny.
"Thanks Uncle Manny." Said Ben with a small smile.
"Don't mention it" Began Manny before putting a hand on his nephew's shoulder, motioning him to walk with him.
"Now come on, let's go to Aunt Val's diner,my treat."
Manny and Ben had reached their destination. They entered inside the dinner, which was not too shabby and despite the time, they were still a handful of people,five to be exact that were inside.
"This place actually seems alright." Said Ben.
"I know, this is easily one of the best diners in the city. Come on let's take a seat." Manny told his nephew,to which he obliged.
A few seconds passed before a waitress came over with a notepad. Upon seeing Manny,her expression changed from a neutral one to that of a smile."Manny, nice to see you again, How've you been?"
"I've been good Cass. Thanks for asking. How's your kids?" Asked Manny with a smile.
"Patrick and Peter? They're good, thanks for asking. They're home with their dad. Poor Jacob hasn't been feeling too good these past few days." Said Cass with a tone of sadness.
"Sorry to hear that, hope he gets better. Help me send my regards to them." Said Manny.
"They'll be sure to hear, thank you." Said Cass who turned her attention to Ben.
"Oh, and who's this little boy?"
"That's my nephew,Ben. He's going to be with me for a while."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Cassie." Greeted Ben.
"The pleasure is all mine,Ben. Hope you enjoy your stay here, and please,call me Aunt Cass."
"Of course ma'am." Replied Ben, leading the woman to chuckle.
"Now what would you two gentlemen like?"
"We'll have the simple cheeseburger with fries," Manny told her,
"Oh,and two plain smoothies if you will"
The waitress wrote down his order. She looked to him, "It'll be ready in a minute,"
"No problem, Thanks Cass" Said Manny. Cass simply nodded in acknowledgement and left to prepare their order.
"Your parents told me you drink smoothies now. I thought you never liked them?" Asked Manny
"Yeah,before. But now, it's kinda growing on me." Ben shrugged.
"Good to hear you're trying new things. I can tell you now that smoothies will grow on you, and once they do, you won't regret it for a moment." Said Manny with a smirk.
"Sure Uncle Manny." Ben said rolling his eyes before having a small smirk on his face as well. Cass eventually came back with their meals.
"Here's your order, Enjoy." She said cheerfully. The two thanked her, and both took their respective burgers in their hand, and were just about to take a bite of it.
BOOM!
Suddenly the ground below them shook violently, causing both Tennyson's to drop their Burgers on the table, and their smoothies to fall off it, causing it to spill across the ground.
"What was that?" Asked one of the men inside the diner.
"Some sort of earthquake." Answer another.
"An earthquake? In Jump City? it can't be" Reasoned Cass.
"I'm guessing earthquakes don't happen around here?" Asked Ben
"No. It has be something else. Probably some sort of explosion. Question is, where did it come from?..." Manny answered Ben before asking a question of his own.
"Over there." Said one of the women in diner, pointing outside. Everyone's eyes went to what she was pointing at and they were dumbfounded to see what looked like green smoke.
"What kind of bomb gives off green smoke?" Said another woman inside the diner.
"It's not a bomb, there's someone there." Said one of the men. True to his word, the smoke was concealing an individual who eventually stepped out. It was a teenage girl with long, red hair, her eyes were glowing green, she was dressed in purple armor, and she appeared to be cuffed.
"It's...a girl... what's she got to do with this?" Questioned Cass.
"I don't think that's an ordinary girl,Cass look at her wrists." Said Manny, causing Cass to take note of her cuffs.
As the adults began to make their observations on what was going on,Ben couldn't help but think to himself.
'She looks pretty scary, but it doesn't look like she wants to hurt anyone. She probably wants to get those cuffs off her, but I don't know for sure since I don't understand what she's saying.'
Indeed, the unknown girl did not try to attack anyone,at least initially. She seemed to be trying to communicate with the observers outside, mostly waving her cuffs in front of them as an object of interest. This changed however as a man in glasses took a picture of her with his camera, causing her to enter a blind fury and begin to destroy everything in her path. Everyone that initially crowded her to carefully observe her began to run for their lives. That also included the people inside the cafe.
"Uncle Manny I..."
"Do what you got to do. I'll cover for you." Manny interrupted his nephew, leading the boy to nod. As his uncle ran out with Cass who was initially petrified with fear,Ben,after ensuring that he was alone in the diner,brought the Omnitrix to his face and used his right thumb to press down the bottom right button on it. This caused the dial to pop up and show a silhouette of what seemed to a humanoid fish alien.
'Judging from the earthquake from earlier, and the cars she's wrecked, I'd say this girl is pretty strong. I don't want to have to fight her, but I also need to be able to take a few blows if need be while I try to remove her cuffs. Just hope I don't regret doing that..' Ben thought to himself as he began to shift the dial clockwise and counter-clock wise, causing the silhouette to change continuously until he stopped at the silhouette of a certain four armed humanoid alien.
"Going Hero!" Ben yelled before slamming the dial with his right hand, causing a blinding green light to occupy the room.
A sensation travelled across Ben's body causing him to stretch out his left arm which had the Omnitrix on it. The Omnitrix disappears as a green surge of electricity surges through Ben's body causing his legs to become longer and more reptilian in nature, but with a blue and black color scheme with wheels. He also grows out a tail and covers his face with his hands. His hands and body change completely with his body becoming taller and slimmer,and also encompassing the blue and black color scheme,and his hands changing from five human fingers to three black claws. Removing his hands from his face,a Velociraptor like facial structure is what is seen in place of Ben's human head, alongside a slip on visor with a blue"x" covering it.
As the green light died out,standing in the place of Ben is a semi-armored Velociraptor. He has black orbs on his feet and wears a black cone-like helmet with a blue face, green eyes, black lips, and stripes running under and in between his eyes.He also has five blue stripes on his tail and wears black bodysuit and a turtleneck-like shirt with a white stripe on the center.
"Xlr8? I was going for Fourarms." Said the now transformed Kineceleran said in a tone of annoyance.
"It'll have to do." Sighed Xlr8. His visor then concealed his face before he dashed out of the diner with blinding speeds and a blue blur.
(X)
The handcuffed alien girl only continued wrecking havoc across the street,as she sent numerous cars flying. One was about to hit a pedestrian before he has quickly moved away from that position. Though disoriented at first,the man was able to see that his savior was none other than Xlr8.
"Get to safety, I'll take care of this." Said Xlr8. The man nodded, although a bit in a confused manner before running away. With his visor slid up, Xlr8 made direct eye contact with the alien girl,whom although wasn't attacking him,looked at him with a lot of animosity.
"I don't know if you can understand me but I need you to stop your rampage. Your putting innocent people in danger." Xlr8's words seemed to have resonate with her a bit as she began to look at the wreckage she had caused with a bit of a somber expression.
'Maybe I can get through to...' His train of thought was cut off as a curved black object struck her across her forehead. Both aliens looked at where the object came from. It was thrown by a boy who stood on top of a dark orange car. He had slicked back spiky hair, a white domino mask across his face,a black and yellow cape on his black. He wore a short sleeve shirt with green sleeves and gloves. The shirt itself was red in color and had a "R" symbol inside a black circle on the left side of his chest. He also wore tight green pants with silver boots.
"Robin? What's he doing here" Xlr8 asked more to himself with a confused look on his face.
"Who are you?" Robin asked with a cold glare. The question seemed to be directed more towards the alien girl than Xlr8. Speaking of the alien girl,she grit her teeth, seething in rage before leaping into the air and slamming down her cuffs on the car Robin was standing on as the latter had already jumped out of the way.
The girl ran towards him, unrelenting as she swung her cuffs towards Robin's face, forcing him to do a backhand spring to dodge. She swung her cuffs downwards, causing him to side step. She swung it backwards, causing him to duck before doing a backflip in order to dodge another downward swing. This put some distance between them,but before she could run towards him to continue her assault,a blue blur rushed past her, causing her to spin a bit to the left. Slightly disoriented, she was met with more attacks across the face from the blue blur who in actuality was Xlr8. Getting annoyed, she raised her cuffs high above her head, but before she could slam them down, she was suddenly grabbed by those same cuffs and flung towards a blue bus by Xlr8.
The Kineceleran slipped up his visor, before he spoke out.
"Robin, didn't expect to see you here. Aren't you meant to be with B..."
"I'm going solo now. I don't think we've met before, but nice work attacking her while she was blindsided." Robin said cutting off Xlr8.
"I was actually hoping it it wouldn't have to come to that. Despite her rampage,it seems like she wants to get those cuffs off more than she wants to wreck stuff." Said Xlr8, trying to convince Robin.
"So you're suggesting that we free her? Wouldn't that just make her more of a problem." Robin questioned, not quite understanding Xlr8's plan.
"Just trust me on this." Xlr8 stated a bit annoyed.
The alien girl had gotten up from the truck, visibly more annoyed than before. In an incredible feat of strength, she effortlessly picked up the blue and threw it towards the two , causing both to move out of the way. To their surprise, the bus was stopped in mid air,held from the front to be exact before being laid down on the ground gently. The individual responsible for this was a huge man, dressed in a grey hoodie and black pants. Most of his face seemed human in nature with a brown skin tone to match,thus making him of African American descent, but his left eye was glowing a robotic red.
"Yo! Who's here messin' up my neighborhood?!" The stranger said with a tone of annoyance.
"That would be her. Look,I know she looks like trouble, but we need to get those cuffs off her." Said Xlr8.
"Wouldn't that just make her more of a handful with her arms free?" Question the hooded man.
"Trust me on this." Xlr8 stated.
"Both of you,be on guard, she's about to attack." Said Robin, causing both of them to look towards the alien girl. True to his word,The girl was about to lunge towards them, until she was suddenly hit by a...green goat.
The green goat shifted into a green-skinned boy that looked between the ages thirteen and fourteen.
He stood straight, "Ex-Doom patrol member, Beast Boy sir! How can I help-?!" He stopped, his eyes widened when he saw Robin, "Wowzers! You're Robin, aren't you, sir?" He asked.
"Well, you can start by not calling me sir," Robin said.
"Okay... I'll admit I didn't see that one coming" Xlr8 stated with obvious surprise.
Beast-Boy's eyes glistened, "Well, then let me just say that it is an honor to be-"
"Beast-Boy, was it?" Robin asked.
"Yessir?" Beast-Boy asked.
"You might want to leave this interview for later. She's not down yet." Robin answered. Indeed, the alien girl had gotten up and her eyes were glowing green with fury.
"I'll need one of these" Xlr8 said as he dashed towards Robin,and returned to where he was standing with a slim silver object with a black handle, leaving the latter mildly surprised.
"Everyone scatter. Don't attack her, even if you see an opening. Before she can hit you, I'll remove the cuffs." Xlr8 said as he dashed.
"Hey,who made him leader?." Said the hooded man.
"Look out!" Robin shouted as he jumped out of the way, Beast Boy and Cyborg, although startled at first, followed suit as the alien girl came crashing down on where they once stood.
The girl lunged towards Robin who did step back to dodge a swing from her cuffs. He would do this continuously until the girl would swing her cuffs towards his legs, causing him to jump. This however,left him unable to block a spinning side kick from her that sent him skidding across the pavement. As she stood in front of the downed Robin, she pointed her cuffs towards him and began to speak. Unfortunately, Robin could not make out what she was saying as it wasn't a human language, but he wouldn't need to as Xlr8 would once again blindside her, causing her to spin in place. When she stopped spinning, and regained her composure, Xlr8 stood a few feet away from her. She looked at him with utter rage and would have attacked him had her cuffs not suddenly fallen off. The girl was taken aback by this and looked at her now free hands at surprise before looking back at Xlr8 who had removed his visor.
"Alright I've removed your cuffs. Now I would really appreciate it if you stopped attacking us and tell us why you're..."
But before Xlr8 could continue,the girl did something that took both Xlr8,Robin,Beast boy and the hooded man completely by surprise. She drew Robin who was still on the ground, back to his feet and close to her with her right hand and kissed him, causing the boy-wonder to blush wildly. She broke the kiss almost immediately, pushing Robin in the process, causing the latter to look at her with utter confusion while on his back once more.
"If you wish not to be destroyed, you will leave me alone!" She threatened, now speaking English with glowing eyes before taking off
Xlr8 and the others were shocked. While the hooded man ran towards Robin to check if he was alright, Beast Boy walked towards Xlr8,who was a bit frozen with shock,and began to speak, saying.
"So, I'm Beast-Boy, who are you and are you all right?"
"Right now, you can call me Xlr8, and yeah...I think so... I'm just in shock" Xlr8 said as he shook his head a bit before looking at the green changeling.
"Who do you think she was?" said a new voice, leading all of them to see a teenage girl, dressed in a dark blue hood that covered all but her face, standing far away.
"Don't know. Whoever she was, the girl sure knows how to make an impression," The man said.
"Good thing we made an impression. Crazy space girl's gone, the city's saved, mission accomplished!" Beast-Boy said.
"You're an alien,right?" The man said to Xlr8, "Do you know who she is?"
"No idea. I don't know every alien in the galaxy," Xlr8 said, "And I'm not really an alien. Not always at least"
"What do you mean?" Said Robin walking towards Xlr8.
"Let's just say that my powers aren't too far off from Beast Boy over here."
"Woah, does that mean that instead of changing into animals, you can change into aliens? That's so cool" Said Beast Boy with awe as literal stars could be seen in his eyes.
"Yeah it is.Look...i appreciate the help with the alien girl, but i don't think we're exactly in the whole 'secret identity territory'." Explained Xlr8.
"Hmm, good point. But what are you going to do now. She's probably somewhere nearby." Said Robin
"I'll do some recon around the city. I have some friends in higher places that may be able to help her out" Xlr8 said, dropping his visor and about to speed off until he was held by the hand by Beast Boy.
"Hold on, you don't have to do this alone. We could look for her together, like a team." Pleaded Beast Boy. Xlr8 gently removed Beast Boy's hand from his.
"Sorry but I already have a team. They're not here right now,so I'm doing this solo. You guys don't need to worry though, I've got this covered." Xlr8 said before speeding off.
"Though I wouldn't be surprised if he was running off to see if he could get a kiss for himself, Xlr8 might have a point. We can probably leave things to him." Said the hooded man with a tone of humor.
"I don't think so. Not only is he hiding something, but his false bravado is pretty obvious. This entire situation with the alien girl could probably be out of his depth." Said Robin.
"Well, it looks like we're done here. I appreciate the help," Robin said as he walked off.
"You're going to track down the alien too?" The girl dressed in blue asked.
"I have to find out if she's a threat," Robin said.
"Hey, sir! I-I mean Robin? Do you maybe-"
"Sorry, but I also go solo," Robin said.
"Need a side-kick?" Beast-Boy finished his question, now with a saddened expression.He looked up and his eyes widened.
"DUUUUDE!" Beast-Boy exclaimed. They saw a huge spaceship flying over the city.
The ship flew above a small island and dropped down a large device.
"Looks like space girl has friends," The man said.
"Or enemies," Robin said.
The device activated and there was a hologram of an alien,who were lizard like in appearance but more humanoid than bestial like.
"People of earth! We come to your planet, hunting an escaped prisoner, a very dangerous prisoner. Do not interfere, and we will leave your city with only minimum damage, but if you attempt to assist her...your destruction will be absolute."
The hologram disappeared and the ship opened up as the aliens flew out.
"That's a big ship," The man said.
"And those are some scary looking aliens," Beast-Boy said.
"They told us not to interfere," The girl in blue said.
"So what? You're still going after her?" The man asked.
"I suppose we could team up, just this once," Robin smirked. A smile formed on the faces of the other three teens. Robin,Beast Boy and the hooded man walked towards the destruction left by the wake of the alien girl while the hooded girl didn't move but rather had a somber expression on her face.
"You in?" Robin called out to her as he along with the other two boys stopped walking to look at her.
"I'm not the hero type. Trust me.. if you knew what I really am, you wouldn't want me around." She replied as she turned her back on them. But before she could begin to walk away,a hand placed itself on her shoulder.
"I know enough." Said Robin with a genuine smile, leading the hooded girl to have a smile of appreciation on her face.
Meanwhile, alongside the streets of Jump City,not too far from where the Titans were, Xlr8 was seen standing on a quiet street with a dim street light looking into at the sky with his visor down.
'Guess the alien girl didn't come to Earth on her own after all. Though if I'm to go by their threats, those lizard guys are definitely not the good guys. I need to get to her before they do' Xlr8 thought to himself. As his visor slid down, Xlr8 was about to speed off until the Omnitrix symbol on his chest started to make a beeping sound with a red light flashing on the faceplate.
"Aww man, not now." Xlr8 wined with his shoulders slumped. He then looked across his shoulders in order to tell if there was anyone on the street.
'Doesn't seem like anyone's nearby. Still... I'm going to find some cover for when I change back, can't be too careful.' With that thought, Xlr8 sped into a nearby alley, and entered deep inside it before looking across his shoulders and then relaxing. As he did this,a bright red light covered him for a few seconds, and once it died down, standing in his place was Ben, reverted back to his human form.
"Ok, coast is clear. I'll just see if I can get to her on foot from here. Hopefully by then, the watch will be recharged in case I need to kick some alien butt." Ben contemplated with obvious bravado.
"That would be unwise of you,Ben Tennyson." A new voice said, causing the eleven year old to turn his back in surprise in order to see who was the owner of the voice. His eyes widened as he saw a anthropomorphic grey frog no taller than 5 inches. He also had gills and sticky skin,bulbous green eyes with rectangular black pupils and eyelids that open and close horizontally. Four thin tendrils grow out of his lower jaw, while two longer ones grow out of his upper jaw, giving him the appearance of having a beard, and with two additional tendrils on each side of his head, as well as two liver spots on the right side of his face and two more above his right eye. He also wore a green tunic with black sleeves and a black stripe running down his chest and abdomen with a silver belt surrounding his waist. The platings were colored silver and covered more of his neck, shoulders and wrists, as well as his legs and feet, leaving his toes exposed
"For it seems that you do not understand how dire the situation at hand is." Said the stranger with a serious tone.
"Azmuth? What are you doing here?" Ben questioned, revealing the strange alien's name to be Azmuth.
"I believe that you already know the answer to that Ben. I should be the one asking you why it is that you made me come beyond our agreed point of meeting to retrieve my Omnitrix?" Azmuth said, though with a tone that suggested that his question was more of a rhetorical one.
"It's a bit of a long story, but let's just say that if I don't get to her before those lizard guys do, she'll get captured and who knows what they'll do to her." Ben said with a somber tone.
"Your concern for the Tamaranean, although admirable could be misplaced. The Gordainians will not give her up so easily" Warned Azmuth.
"Wait a second... you know about the girl and the lizard people that are after her?" Asked a suprised Ben.
"Of course." The galvan began to explain in a matter of fact tone.
"The Tamaraneans and the Gordainians are one of the most well alien species in this galaxy. Their very nature lives and thrives on rather archaic perceptions of life,in that they are a warrior race first and foremost. This trait that they both share is the very reason for their constant battles amongst themselves that dates back to millions of your Earth years. Their most recent conflict has put your planet in the crossfire, and if you are to aggravate the Gordainians in their pursuit of the girl, and fail to stop them, millions of lives will be lost today."
"I won't let that happen. I'll stop them no matter what." Ben said, looking at Azmuth fiercely with conviction in his eyes.
"I do not doubt that you will try. But let me ask you this,Ben. Do you know anything about this girl that you wish to save? Who's ties with the Gordainians ensure that if it is to be interfered with unsuccessfully, will result in the eradication of all life in this city as you know it?" Asked Azmuth, who's tone was more of one laced with curiosity.
"I...I..." Ben began to falter,as he could not think of a proper defense as to why he wanted to help the alien girl. The first reason that came to his mind was his pride. The fact that his ego wouldn't allow him to let someone that he believed to need help go unassisted. The second reason was his instinct. Over the course of time he's had the Omnitrix, which has been a year,Ben has slowly been developing a slight ability to be able to judge a person's character correctly. In the case of this alien girl, from the very moment that Ben laid his eyes on her,he felt that they was more to her than the alien who was causing havoc and destruction across the city.
But at the moment,he couldn't think of why it is that he saw her that way. And as such, doubts slowly started to creep into his mind. The doubts being in form of questions such as;
'What if Azmuth's right'?
' What if she's not the victim in this whole mess but part of the problem?'
And as these thoughts began to linger,it seemed that Ben was indeed beginning to see them as being more than just a possibility, but rather the reality of the situation. But then,Ben spoke up, continuing where he trailed off.
"I saw the look in her eyes Azmuth. She looked angry, but not only that, she looked confused. When she was wrecking stuff,it wasn't because she wanted to for the fun of it,it was because she wanted to get those cuffs off her. And when she did get them off, she could have kept fighting, but she didn't. Instead, she didn't want us to be a part of her problems, and now we know why."
Azmuth began to stroke his tendrils gently, indicating that he was deep in thought about his next course of action. As he opened his mouth to speak, however,he was interrupted by a sigh from Ben who went on to speak, saying.
"Azmuth...I know why you're asking me all these questions. You're worried that my head's not in the game to do what needs to be done, and I can understand why. Loosing Feedback hurt me a lot. It made me feel like a part of me had died the day I lost him, and for the past two months, I've been acting just like that. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that, but I do know that I can use that experience to do better than I've done before." Ben began to clench his fist anxiously. This lasted for a bit before he released them, and with that,he looked at Azmuth with a warm smile, slightly surprising the Galvan.
"When I first got the Omnitrix,it made me feel special because I knew that every fantasy I had about becoming a superhero would come true. At first,I only saw the watch as something to serve just me and me alone. But thanks to Grandpa Max and even my cousin,Gwen,I knew the responsibility that came with the power I now had. Even the baddies I fought along the way helped put me in place and made me realize what being a hero really is. During the time that I unlocked Feedback though,I felt invincible, because at that time,I felt that despite all the problems and all the responsibility that came with the hero stuff, not only did I always come out on top, but I also came out better than when I started."
"But then, when I lost him,every fear and doubt I had about myself,I started to believe it. I started to think they were true because I allowed myself to get hurt like that. And even though my family tried everything they could to help me feel better, the feeling never went away. But today, something changed. For the first time in a while,I started to believe in myself again, because of the people who believed in me and supported me all the way. And now, because of those other heroes who are more or less going to risk their lives to save that girl, I've realized that the only way I can go from here is forward. The only thing I can do is to start meeting up to the expectations that not only do my family have for me, but the one's I have for myself. I'm going to fight not just for this girl, but for everyone who can't fight for themselves, with or without the Omnitrix, because that's what heroes do."
Azmuth who was initially wide eyed throughout the duration of Ben's speech, now that it had ended, his eyes became narrowed as they seemed to be looking into Ben's soul, causing the young hero to be nervous. This would last for quite sometime until the Galvan's expression eventually changed into a warm smile as well, much to the relief of Ben.
"It seems that you are maturing Ben Tennyson, perhaps there is hope in the universe after all." Azmuth said Solemnly.
"Really? You're not going to stop me from stopping the Gordainians?" Ben asked hopefully.
"No I will not,on the contrary,i will be making sure that you are properly equipped to face this threat as your current disposition could prove bothersome." As Azmuth said this, he jumped onto Ben's left arm, which had his Omnitrix, and removed the core of the device, much to the surprise of the pre-teen.
"What are you doing?" Asked Ben.
"Giving your Omnitrix some enhanced modifications that will benefit you greatly."
Answered Azmuth as he removed the faceplate of the core of the Omnitrix, revealing a complex green circuitry within it. After rearranging the circuits into a more complex fashion, Azmuth put back the faceplate, and put the fully restored core of the Omnitrix back to where it belonged. As he jumped off Ben's arm back to the ground where he stood, the Omnitrix changed from red to green, indicating that it was fully recharged for use.
"Alright, I'm all recharged. So what upgrades did you give me along with it?" Ben asked with a smirk
"Originally, your Omnitrix had a time out limit of ten minutes. I have increased that to thirty minutes, and have also granted you an additional ability. Even when transformed, you can now switch between alien forms of your choice by simply thinking of the transformation and placing your palm of either hand on the faceplate of the Omnitrix. Keep in mind that you can only do this up to three-four times and that it reduces at least five minutes out of the time you can remain transformed each time you do so." Azmuth answered confidently.
"Woah Azmuth, this is awesome. I can kick so much more butt than before with this. I'm definitely going to take this out for a test drive." Ben said as he activated the Omnitrix.
"Not so fast,Ben. Time is of the essence. It would be best of you to transform when you have an idea of where the Tamaranean resides. Information which I can provide you with." As Azmuth said this, he brought out a small silver ball with a hole on top of it. Immediately once the device was brought out, a holographic projection manifested above the hole, and showed a rather small building with a dome on top of it. It had three golden stars on it and in the middle of those stars was a bright yellow would sign which said "Video". The holographic projection changed into a display of the four teenagers Ben had met slowly approaching the alien girl who was on the defensive, backing away from them cautiously.
"They're in a video store. I think there's one near here." Said Ben.
"Then there isn't a moment to waste, you must be on your way, Ben Tennyson." Said Azmuth, causing the young hero to nod in agreement. As he activated the Omnitrix and found the transformation he was looking for, before he slammed the dial down,Ben looked at Azmuth warmly and said.
"Azmuth,I don't know how to thank you. It means a lot to me all that you've done for me." Said Ben genuinely.
"Keep doing the right thing." Said Azmuth warmly, causing Ben to nod again.
"It's Hero Time!" Shouted Ben with a smirk as he slammed down the dial, causing the familiar green light to wash all over him.
The four teenagers and the alien girl were not having a pleasant experience as the Gordainians had also arrived at the video store in hopes of recapturing her, to which all five teens refused, leading to an all out brawl. Though the teens were doing quite well against their assailants, their numbers were troublesome,as the Gordainians were vast in number. The person who was faring the worst due to this numerical disadvantage was Beast Boy who was in the form of a gorilla. No matter how many Gordainians he would throw away or put into submission holds to knock them out, more would keep coming until they eventually held him down and rendered him immobile. The hooded man, seeing his new friends plight rushed towards him to give him any form of assistance he could, but stopped once a familiar blue blur whooshed past him towards the restrained changeling.
In a matter of seconds,all the Gordainians surrounding Beast Boy were rendered unconscious, and the person responsible for this was none other than...
"Xlr8, you came back." Beast Boy,who had now transformed back into his human form, said with joy.
"I never said that I was leaving, just said that I wanted to deal with alien girl alone. But after seeing you guys again, I've decided I'm going to help you out." Xlr8 said with his visor down.
"Well I'm as happy as Beast Boy that you're here to help us again, because we're going to need all the help we can get to stop these lizard freaks." Said the hooded man with a smirk of his own.
"Already on it" Said Xlr8 as he slid down his visor and sped off towards the remaining Gordainians, with the other two boys following his lead.
Robin who was in the middle of a three way battle with two Gordainians, ducked down to avoid a left hook from the first one, and jumped to his left to avoid a downard arm slam from the second one. Now,a few feet away from each other, Robin put his left arm on his waist which had a silver belt around it as both Gordainians charged towards him. Before they could grab him, Robin did a spinning front flip, and with his body turned to face their back, before he landed on the ground,he used his sliver staff which he switched from his left hand to his right to strike them across the back of their heads. This sent the first Gordainian to the ground.
The second one, still standing, though a bit disoriented, lunged at the boy wonder who side stepped to his left to dodge the grabbing attack,and sent two quick strikes with his staff to the Gordainian's chest and right side of his head, forcing him to step to Robin's right in a dazed state. The Gordainian that was on the ground picked himself up, and before he could attack Robin,a blue blur rushed at him, and sent him flying to a wall, knocking him out. His comrade was too surprised to defend himself from Xlr8 speed blitzing him,as his head was slammed into the ground, knocking him out too. With his visor still on, Xlr8 nodded at Robin,who did the same to him with a smile, before running towards a pair of Gordainians behind him.
The hooded girl was holding her own pretty well against her assailants,as several of them were either laid out on the floor below her as she was floating in the air,or laid across various objects inside the video store. A Gordainian.tried to blindside her by jumping behind her to attack, but the girl anticipated this and turned her back to face him,her hands glowing a dark aura. But before either could attack the other,a green jaguar tackled the Gordainian to the ground and clawed him, knocking him out. To her back, the hooded man had picked up two Gordainians and slammed their heads together, knocking them out. And to her right,a blue mini tornado was seen raising five Gordainians into the air. After a few seconds, the tornado dispersed, revealing the cause to be Xlr8 who swatted three of them towards the hooded girl with his tail as he said "Head's up"
This caused her to send a dark energy blast from both her palms that sent the airborne Gordainians into the wall behind Xlr8, destroying it on impact and knocking them out.
"I don't quite know what your powers are but they're pretty cool." Xlr8 praised.
"Thanks. Good to have you back." Said the hooded girl causing Xlr8 to nod before speeding off again.
The alien girl was the one that was faring the best as it seemed most of the attention was focused her. The space of the video store in which she fought in was barely standing as numerous Gordainian shaped holes across the walls and ceiling were present and several piles of unconscious Gordainians were on the ground. The one's still standing cornered her in a circle as they were about to attack. But before they could do this, Xlr8 blitzed passed all of them and sent attacks from his arms,legs and tail too quick for either of them to dodge or block. In a matter of seconds,all the Gordainians surrounding her were unconscious, and before she could speak, Xlr8 interrupted her, saying.
"Look,I know you're probably wondering why I'm here again, just know that I want to help. So how about we leave any questions we may have until later and send these guys packing?" The alien girl nodded. The four other teens joined them and together, they attacked the remaining Gordainians. What was once a isolated fight restricted to the video store broke out into the streets of Jump City as the building came crashing down on them. Despite their best efforts,the Gordainians could barely cope with the combined powers of the five adolescents and now with the added might of Xlr8,they stood no chance at all. Eventually all the Gordainians that were unconscious regained consciousness, and instead of pursuing further with their battle,they instead opted to retreat by flying away with a look of defeat on their faces.
"I believe your expression is... thanks" The alien girl said, looking at the group.
"Aww man,my suit" The hooded man said with a tone of sadness. Only his appearance was no longer conceal as his grey hoodie and pants were completely destroyed during the fight, revealing his appearance to be mostly robotic, with only the right side of his face and his biceps on both arms being flesh and blood, making him out to be some sort of cyborg.
"So? You look way cooler without it." Encouraged Beast Boy.
"Yeah, like I'm taking fashion advice from the guy in the goofy mask" Cyborg deadpanned.
"Goofy,my mask is cool. Isn't it? Raven?" Beast Boy said almost pleadingly to the hooded girl, who's name is revealed to be Raven. However to his disappointment, both teens shook their head in disapproval.
"But...what about my secret identity?" Beast-Boy defended
"Dude, you're green" Said Xlr8.
Beast Boy tried to defend his statement, but wasn't able to. He decided to take his mask off as Robin spoke.
"This isn't over. We've interfered," Robin said.
"Trogaar will strike harder," The alien girl said, "It is an only a matter of-"
"Fools!" They turned around to see the holographic projection of leader of the Gordanians, Trogaar, appear again,
"The earth scum were warned. Your incolsence will be punished. Your city shall be destroyed!"
The hologram disappeared and the ship loomed over the city again as a canon appeared, ready to fire.
Everyone looked up in a mix of shock, despair and fear.
"Great..." Raven muttered.
"Knew it would come to this," Xlr8 said.
"So, after trashing the pizza place, and a perfectly good video store, now we managed to make a humungous space gecko mad enough to vaporize our entire town?!" Beast-Boy said.
"Go team," Cyborg said.
"All the fault is yours!" The alien girl snapped at Robin.
"I commanded you leave me alone but you insisted on the being nice!"
"My fault?! You blast me, you kissed me, and you never stopped to mention that they have a gigantic particle weapon?!" Robin snapped.
It was then, the two started arguing.
"We are doomed! I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" Beast-Boy snapped at Cyborg.
"Say what?! I was ready to walk before you-"
"Enough!" Shouted Xlr8, causing the eyes of all the teens to fall on him.
"This is no time to start pointing fingers at who's at fault because quite frankly,it doesn't matter. We're all in this together now, and there's no way back from this. So how about instead of standing here doing nothing but blame each other, we get up there, kick that lizard guys tail and save the city, sounds good?" Xlr8 said as he unslid his visor.
Robin nodded in agreement, "Xlr8's right. We're in this mess, and we will get out of it. Together."
Everyone smiled and nodded.
"Say, you wouldn't happen to have an Alien that could help us get into that ship, would you?" Asked Beast Boy.
"Best I can do is transform into a flyer, which don't have many of and carry Robin up there since only him and robot guy can't fly." Said Xlr8 with a shrug as he slid his visor back up.
"Don't worry about that,I can get us up there." Raven said as her eyes began to glow completely white.
Thanks to Raven's magic, the group managed to get on the ship. Beast-Boy huffed and hugged himself,
"That dark energy stuff gives me the..." He saw Raven giving him a glare, "I-I mean, huh! That's cool!"
Robin peaked to see that the coast was clear.
"They're firing controls. Their isn't much time," He whispered. He got a move-on and the others followed him, except Raven, which caused both Xlr8 and Cyborg to stay behind for her.
"Mind telling us why you're falling behind?" Xlr8 asked.
"You heard the kid. I don't exactly fit in," Raven said.
"I won't lie, I'm not the best at this, but I can confidently say that's not true." Xlr8 said with his visor slid down.
"He's green, half of me is metal,she's from space,he can turn into things from space" Cyborg said, offering a kind smile,
"You fit in just fine," Raven smiled and they caught up with the others.
Xlr8,who was ahead of the others by this point,was approached by the alien girl who began to speak to him.
"You have my utmost thanks. For I did not expect there to still be active plumbers on this planet,or much less a Kineceleran for that matter.
'She knows about the Plumbers. Then again, she's an alien,so I really shouldn't be surprised' Xlr8 thought to himself.
"Don't mention it,I may not know exactly what's going on but I can tell that these lizard freaks aren't good guys, and even though I'm not a plumber, It's my job to kick the butt of bad aliens." Xlr8 said cockily.
"I see. You have my thanks nonetheless, but if you are not a Plumber,then why do you have in your possession a plumber's badge?" She asked. Figuring that he could be honest with her, Xlr8 began to explain.
"Oh, this isn't a plumber's badge, it's actually the Omnitrix" This caused the alien girl to open her mouth in awe.
"For the longest time, the Omnitrix was believed to be a myth across the cosmos. But in the past of your earth year, it was proven to exist as it's wielder was said to have defeated Vilgax. You are him? You are the Ben Tennyson that they speak of?" The girls eyes seemed to have literal stars in them as she could not contain her amazement.
"Yeah, that's me, but you can call me Ben if you want. What's your name?" Xlr8 said a bit shyly. Normally he would have jumped at the chance to inflate his ego at the presence of praise, but his experience over the past two months had made him a bit more mellow and humble. That and the task at hand did make him more focused on his current objective,a trait that would definitely surprise his cousin, Gwen,as she is more used to his less finer qualities.
"As you wish Ben. My name is Koriand'r but in your language,it is translated to Starfire." The alien girl said, revealing her name to be Starfire.
"It's nice to properly meet you Starfire." Said Xlr8.
"Likewise.Do you wish...to be the friends, Ben? If it is okay with you,"
"I'd like that" Xlr8 said in approval.
Starfire smiled at that.
"Thank you."
She flew towards Robin.
"And I am the sorry as well, Robin. All I have done was brought destruction, and I have yelled at you and put the blame on you."
"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I yelled too," Robin said.
"And again! You are...nice! On my world, only my kenorfka has only shown me such...kindness," Starfire said.
"Well, things are different here," Robin said.
The two smiled at each-other for a moment until Beast-Boy spoke,
"Uh, guys?! I think they know we're here!" He pointed at the Gordainians that had their weapons and surrounded them.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Gordainians were in the control room, messing with the controls.
"Lord Trogaar!" One of the Gordainians spoke, "The weapon has reached full power!"
Trogaar, who was sitting in the main chair, ordered, "Then begin the firing sequence,"
The Gordainians obliged and got the canon ready.
"The earth scum shall learn that it takes more than six juvenile heroes to defy the mighty lord Trogaar!" Trogaar smirked.
As the weapon started up, a huge explosion occurred. Trogaar turned around to see the six heroes standing.
"We're not six heroes. We're one team," Robin said.
"Time to shake things up in here." Xlr8 said as he raised his left arm and slammed it on the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, causing a bright green light to cover his body. As the light died down, standing in his place to the surprise and awe of all his onlookers was a humanoid alien that was approximately twelve feet tall, had well-developed muscles, two pairs of four-fingered arms, and red skin. A black stripe went down from his chin to his lower lip, and he has four eyes: a main pair, and a smaller pair below them.
The alien wore a white T-shirt with a black line going down it, black pants, and fingerless gloves. The Omnitrix symbol was on his upper left shoulder,his eyes were yellow and he had no hair whatsoever.
"Woah, dude, this guy looks amazing. What do you call him?" Beast Boy asked excitedly.
"I know,I call him Four Arms." The transformed pre teen answered confidently. This response however, only caused a sweatdrop to form on the heads of all those present in the room, as they saw the name as being very underwhelming.
"A bit on the nose, don't you think?" Cyborg said dryly.
"Heh, you'll get used to it." Fourams said with a smirk as he began to crack his knuckles.
'Alright,it actually worked. Azmuth really outdid himself this time. Now it's time to bring a world of hurt to lizard breath here.' Four Arms thought to himself.
"Now, let's bust some heads" Four Arms said as he entered a fighting stance. This seemed to remove everyone from their initial uncertainty as they all entered a fighting stance.
"Attack!" Trogaar shouted.
The group started to attack the Gordainians, making quick work of them. Four Arms ran towards his assailants with a huge grin on his face and sucker punched one of them with his upper left arm, sending him flying to a wall and knocking him out cold. Surprised by his display of strength, the Gordainian on Four Arms left was unable to prevent him from being lifted into the air by his spear with Four Arms' lower arms and swung towards a Gordainian that was running towards him, knocking both of them out.
A Gordainian flew above Four Arms and began to fire blue energy blasts from his spear, which did no damage to the Tetramand as he used his upper and lower right arm to block the blasts. Using his surprise to his advantage, Four Arms grabbed the Gordainian with his upper right hand, slammed him down into the ground,spun him in a circular motion with that same hand, and threw him into the air, causing him to bounce off the ceiling.
But, before the Gordainian could come crashing down to the ground,Four Arms leaped into the air and used both his upper and lower right arm to slap down hard on his back, causing him to fly towards a group of Gordainians fighting Robin, and crashing down on them. The boy wonder dodged this attack and immediately jumped into the air as Four Arms landed back on the ground with an all arm slam, causing the Gordainians, including Trogaar and Cyborg to fall on their feet due to the shockwave.
"Insolent Pest" Trogaar shouted as he ran towards Four Arms who braced himself for the upcoming attack. Trogaar threw a left jab at Four Arms,who dodged it and sent a punch with his upper right arm to his face. Trogaar then threw a right cross, causing Four Arms to duck and retaliate with a upper left punch to Troggar's stomach, causing the Gordainian leader to spit out saliva. Not skipping a beat,Four Arms slammed his the elbow of his upper right arm onto the back of his head, bringing him to his knees, and then clinching Trogaar's head in a Thai clinch. He then looked above him and saw Starfire and Raven fighting the Gordainians from the air. Then an idea came to his mind.
"Raven, Starfire. I'm up for a game of some impractical basketball. The ball being Trogaar over here. Wanna play?" Asked Four Arms smugly.
"I'm down." Replied Raven.
"I do not understand what you mean,Ben." Asked Starfire.
"Don't worry it Starfire, just get ready to hit big ugly when I saw so." Said Four Arms,who was struggling a bit with keeping Trogaar restrained.
"Understood." Said Starfire,who alongside Raven, returned their focus on all the Gordainians still standing in the room.
With a mighty roar,Four Arms released Trogaar from the Thai clinch and began to shower the Gordainian leader with a flurry of blows too fast for him to react to. Jumping into the air, Four Arms brought all his arms down on Trogaar, forcing him to his knees, then proceeded to lift him by his back, before throwing him towards Starfire.
"Star, now."
As Trogaar came towards her, Starfire charged up a star-bolt in both hands and shot it at Trogaar's midsection, sending him flying towards Raven,who then shot him back down to Four Arms with a dark energy blast. Using the unconscious body of a Gordainian,Four Arms positioned himself in the stance of a baseball player about to take a swing with his bat.
"Beast Boy,heads up." Four Arms shouted as he slammed the Gordainian into Trogaar, sending him towards changeling who was in the form of a Rhino. Using his horn, Beast Boy sent Trogaar into the air with enough altitude for Robin to jump off Beast Boy's back and slam Trogaar down with his staff. The Gordainian seemed to be on the verge of loosing consciousness, with Robin being on the verge of dealing the knockout blow. That honor would belong to someone else as a blue beam would hit him from behind, making him unconscious.
There stood, Cyborg, with his hand transformed into a canon, and smoke coming out. "Alright, I'm only gonna say this once." He looked to his friends with a smirk, "Boo-yah!"
Four Arms looked across the ship and saw that all the Gordainians were down for the count, much to his dismay.
"Ah, come on,I was just getting started." Four Arms whined playfully.
"Look at it this way, with all six of us fighting together, these guys never stood a chance." Robin said with a smile.
"Alright,we saved the city. This calls for a celebration, who's with me?" Said Beast Boy enthusiastically, causing Four Arms to ruffle his hair playfully.
"Not yet, Beasty. We need to get these locked up and I know just the guys to call." Four Arms said with a smirk.
The Gordainians and their ship had been put under the custody of the active plumbers on Earth. Although not quite large in number,they were enough to make sure that the Gordainians were properly incarcerated into a prison they called "The Null Void" They described it as a pocket dimension where the greatest criminals of the galaxy were put under custody. The very nature and dealings of the Plumbers weren't disclosed fully to the teens much to their initial dismay, but they could still make peace with it after understanding the responsibilities that came with their line of work.
The team stood on the island, staring at the sun coming up.
"That's quite a view," Raven said.
"Somebody outta build a house out here," Cyborg said, "We'll need a place to stay,"
"Yeah, if you like sunshine and a beach," Beast-Boy nudged Raven.
"Y'know, you're kinda funny," Raven giggled.
"You think I'm funny?" Beast-Boy beamed, "Dude, I know some jokes!" Raven seemed to regret that.
"Please," They turned around to see Starfire in a new outfit, "I look...nice?"
Robin smiled, "Yeah, you do,"
Starfire smiled, "I thank you all for your bravery and help, and I wish to ask permission to remain here, where the people are most strange, but where are people are most kind," Both Robin and Starfire blushed.
"You don't need our permission, you got it," Robin said.
"Guess we could all use some new friends," Cyborg said.
"Besides, we all make a good team," Beast-Boy said,
"Hey wait..." He looked around, realizing something,
"Where's Xlr8 and Four Arms?He was meant to be here a few minutes ago"
Everybody shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't seen him since-"
Before Cyborg could finish, they saw something coming up, racing on the river with a blue blur left in its wake. They all smiled at the familiar trail of Xlr8,who upon just after they noticed him,was standing on the same island as them with his visor slid down.
"Sorry I was late,I had to deal with some minor damage control across the city and make sure my uncle wasn't worried sick about me." Xlr8 said to the group.
"No problem dude, just glad you're here with us." Said Beast Boy with a smile.
"Though you said something about your uncle, what did you mean by that?" Asked Raven.
'Normally I wouldn't do this with anyone, but I get the feeling I can trust these guys,so they deserve to know.' Xlr8 thought to himself.
"Firstly, you don't have to call me my aliens unless you need to. Starfire already knows what my name is, but she doesn't know what I look like,so it's only fair I share it with you all." As Xlr8 said this,he slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, covering his body with a green light. Once the light died down, the teens were dumbfounded by what they saw.
"My name's Ben,Ben Tennyson." Ben said with a warm smile.
"No way" Beast Boy said shocked.
"You're just a kid." Said Raven, also shocked.
"How is it that a child came into possession of the Omnitrix?" Asked Starfire more out of curiosity than shock. Their reaction did make Ben a bit miffed though.
"Guys, I'm not that young, I'm 11, turning twelve in a few months. And as for the watch, it's a bit of a long story, but I can tell you that I've had it for the past year." Ben said. His response only seemed to have shocked them even more,all except Raven who quickly regained her composure.
"Why tell us this? Show us your secret identity?" Asked Robin, not quite understanding Ben's motive.
"It mind sound a bit naive but...I trust you guys. I may not know much about any of you, but the little I do tells me that you're good people. People I can see myself fighting bad guys with, and though I admit,I don't expect us to just let each other in on our deepest darkest secrets,I can see it being a future possibility. And if today's anything to go by, there's going to be baddies we can't deal with on our own, but together, we'd be unstoppable." Said Ben with a smirk. This caused the teens to enter another wave of shock, but unlike before,they immediately recovered and put on bold and warm smiles on their faces instead.
This kid was definitely full of surprises, but they couldn't help but agree with him as well.
"Well then. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we're happy to have you Ben." Said Robin with a smile.
"Yeah. Not to mention we can both shape shift, only me into animals and you into aliens, plus we've got matching personalities, we're definitely going to become the best of bros." Said Beast Boy with his arm around Ben and a wide smile causing Ben to smile as well. Cyborg then stretched out his right hand to Ben, handing him a circle shaped yellow device with a 'T' on the top.
"What's this?" Ben asked as he took the device from Cyborg's hand.
I thought we might wanna keep in touch, since we'll be a team now, so Cyborg and I designed these," Robin got out four round devices. They accepted the devices.
"When there's trouble, you know who to call,"
Ben smiled very broadly. Just yesterday he was thinking of giving up being a hero for an indefinite amount of time due to him being in a dark place. But thanks to the efforts of his loved ones, he gave the hero gig one last try, and he was very grateful that he did so. Because now, amongst these teenagers, despite their age gap,Ben could see himself being able to connect to a group of individuals so different yet so similar to him. He knew that together with them,they could achieve great things no matter how difficult they would seem.
As the sun rose fully, not only did it indicate beginning of a brand new day. But it also marked the beginning of something greater than ever thought possible; the birth of the Teen Titans.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Chapter 2 of Finding Hope. Thank you once again for reading all the way to the end,I greatly appreciate it. If you enjoyed this chapter, and wish for more chapters, please let me know through reviews, faves and follows,it gives me the drive to want to drop a new chapter faster and meet up to your expectations. Also, if they are things that you did not like in this chapter or wish I had done better, please let me know through your 'Constructive criticism' not 'Flaming' it would greatly appreciate it,as I much more prefer it when my shortcomings are made known respectfully.If there's any questions you have, please let me know through reviews as well. Before I go,I would like to express my thanks once again for your support of this story. Expect Chapter 3 soon, but until then, have yourself a good one.