The Secret Origins of Watch Boy, part II
Ben
Ben, in the shape of the raptor-like creature, felt the wind blowing past himself as he rushed towards the big smoke cloud far away, zigzagging across the trees in his path, "This thing is really fast."
When he arrived at the tourists' camping site, he was greeted with pure chaos. Humanoid squid-faced aliens - Vilgaxians - wearing heavy body armor and carrying large guns set fire to trailers, trees and people. They fired upon anything unfortunate enough to cross their path.
So many dead bodies… He couldn't focus on the dead, though. He had to do something for the living.
Ben in his XLR8 form got some of them out of the line of fire, one in particular began screaming, "My son is still in there!" She pointed at some large RV that was on fire. Park rangers tried to lead her and other people away from that area, which left XLR8 to race back to the vehicle and grab the unconscious child. Mere seconds later it exploded after taking another hit from an alien weapon, but XLR8 and the young child were long gone by now.
"Here." XLR8 said, as he delivered the little boy to his crying mother.
At first the woman looked scared from seeing XLR8, but once she realized he had saved her son's life, her expression changed. "Thank you so much. I…I had no idea aliens could be good."
One of the humanoid-squid creatures pointed at XLR8, "That kineceleran… He's Tomyx, using the Omnitrix! All fire on him!"
"Crap," he turned to the woman, "Get outta here!" With her son, she took off while he began zipping away from the energy beams aimed at him.
Wanting to get the battle away from the campers, he zipped into the forest avoiding trees and bushes as he did so. He managed to make the trees work in his favor, taking cover and confusing his enemies, but the squid-aliens were literally on his tail and there were way too many of them. He decided to take an aggressive approach and attack, but while he impressively managed to knock five Vilgaxians down with his speed, a sixth one was able to shoot him straight in the chest.
"Argh!" he screamed in pain, but was able to get back to his feet… wheels… balls... alien things? And took off again, but the fatigue was starting to take its toll on him.
"Gwen was right. I am going to die here... but I'm not going down that easy." He stood up and used his talons and tail to knock out three more aliens, but another shot hit him from behind and knocked him down. As soon as he fell, two Vilgaxians shape-shifted their arms into tentacles and immobilized him completely.
XLR8 closed his eyes, waiting for the moment when one of his enemies would break his neck. Although he was seconds away from his death, he never felt happier. All his life, Ben was the punching bag for the bullies at school, the guy who was always rejected by the girls, the last pick for sports, and the lazy kid with low grades. At least now he would die a hero.
But it didn't happen.
"Is he alive?" One of the Vilgaxians asked, odd he seemed to understand their language perfectly. Probably it had something to do with the Omnitrix.
"Of course he is, don't worry. We'll take Lord Vilgax's traitorous son back to him in one piece..." The other squid-faced alien answered.
Offspring… of Vilgax?! ... Tomyx ... They thought he was Tomyx …
The squid-faced duo started dragging a semi-unconscious XLR8 across the ground, when, fortunately, they were surprised by the appearance of a man covered in steel - like a second layer of skin - who punched them to release XLR8. A small army of soldiers in black uniforms followed behind the man, shooting at the other Vilgaxians.
"I'm Steel, the Director of SECT. The cavalry is here," the steel-skinned man said to XLR8.
Suddenly there was a loud beeping noise coming from the hourglass-shaped disk on XLR8's chest.
"Uh Oh, this is going to be embarrassing."
One day later. S.E.C.T. Headquarters, classified location.
Ben was sitting on the bed in his temporary bedroom inside one of SECT's headquarters when Gwen walked in. The dweeb gave Ben a very long hug, before pinching his arm. Hard.
"Ouch, that hurts! What was that for?"
"It's supposed to hurt, Doofus! You were irresponsible, reckless and almost died!" she shouted.
"Can you close the door, please? The S.E.C.T. agents don't need to have 'the redhead with a fiery temper' stereotype confirmed," the second his cousin turned around towards the door, he saw a chance for payback by pinching her backside.
"Oouch! You perv!"
"Serves you right, brat." Ben smirked, "And, since you're a girl and I'm a guy, that huge butt of yours is the only acceptable place for me to pinch you."
Gwen glared daggers at her cousin, "At least my head isn't as huge as your FAT head!" and then she spoke again, much more relaxed, "I came to tell you Tomyx is awake. Grandpa Max and Director Steel are with him now in the infirmary, so he can tell them how to take that watch off your wrist."
Ben felt a ping of sadness, but played it off. "Oh yeah ha, phew thank goodness we'll get this friggin thing off..." he glanced at the watch longingly, "But let's say for arguments sake that I keep it. I could save a lot of people with it and-"
"Don't start, doofus!" she snapped, "They'll take the watch off you and give it to a S.E.C.T agent, who will continue to save lives." Gwen folded her arms.
"But I can do a much better job than any of these agents!" Ben folded his arms too. He knew it was a weak argument, but it was all he had.
"Hahaha don't make me laugh. I know you enjoyed the thrill, but you gotta remember you almost got killed by those Vilgaxians, and yet you still want to risk your life on a regular basis? Wouldn't you care about how your mother, your father or Grandpa Max would feel if you died?!" Gwen questioned, angry.
"It's easy for you to judge me, Little Miss Perfect..." Ben replied angry, "You're smart, a straight-A student. You're beautiful, all the boys at school drool over you. Crap, you're a black belt in karate! Everyone admires you! And when I finally have something that makes ME admirable too, of course you don't want me to keep it!"
Ben lowered his face not meeting his cousin's gaze, he hadn't meant to say that, but she made him angry. It wouldn't make sense to argue with anybody, though, no matter how much he wanted it, S.E.C.T. would never let him have the watch. It was better to go straight to Director Steel and get this thing over with as soon as possible.
"I . . . admire you . . ."
It was a whisper so low Ben barely heard. He wondered if he was imagining things, or if Gwen had really said that.
"Did you say something?"
She sighed, "I admire you doofus," Gwen repeated, now a little louder. "You're reckless, irresponsible, and stupid . . . but . . . for the right reasons." She shuffled her shoulders. "Whether you're defending kids from bullies, or putting on a weird watch you know nothing about to save someone, you're good-hearted and very brave. This is your nature regardless of any alien device you might have, and I… admire you… a little bit… for that."
Ben scratched his head, "Thank you… I guess… "
For some reason Gwen's face was turning red, "Come on, let's go look for Grandpa, Director Steel and Tomyx?" she said.
As soon as Ben and Gwen arrived at the infirmary, they saw Tomyx lying on a bed and fortunately the alien teenager looked much better than he had been the day before. Ben had a lot to talk to him about, but he would give Tomyx the benefit of a doubt and discuss those things in private later - after all, being Vilgax's son wasn't a thing to be proud of. Ben could understand if Tomyx didn't want to share that with S.E.C.T., if he hadn't already.
Director Steel was standing by the door, his arms folded, staring at the floor with a serious expression on his face - he was certainly thinking of a problem. Seeing the Director completely normal without his steel skin, Ben noticed a large scar on his face and wondered how anyone could've hurt him.
And Grandpa Max was sitting on a chair, with a strange look on his face.
"So . . . How are we going to take the watch off Ben?" Gwen asked.
The tentacles on Tomyx's chin began to shake nervously. "Mr. Ben and the watch are fused, merged... If Mr. Ben is killed, the watch breaks, and if someone destroys the watch or tries to take it off Mr. Ben, he dies." Tomyx said, "But don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way to separate them and- "
"WHAT?!" Gwen shouted, "You knew there was no way to take off the watch, and you knew there was a megalomaniac alien overlord after that thing, and you still let my baby cousin wear that? You . . . You… "
"Hey, hey, calm down, cuz." Ben held Gwen back before she could use some karate move against the Vilgaxian, and then he whispered in her ear, "And I'm not a baby! You're only a few hours older than me!" Ben was also obviously embarrassed to be called a "baby" in front of the Director of S.E.C.T. of all people.
"I'm sorry..." Tomyx said solemnly, "I didn't want Mr. Ben to wear it, but we had limited options giving our circumstances. They could have killed us and taken the Omnitrix, which would be much worse."
"Why didn't you use it yourself, huh?" Gwen was still angry.
"The Omnitrix is potentially one of the most powerful weapons in the Universe. I wouldn't trust it to myself. But your cousin... He tried to save me at all costs risking his own life. He is worthy of the Omnitrix."
"Let's talk outside." Director Steel said. Probably, he still didn't trust Tomyx entirely and didn't want him to hear anything important.
In another room, away from the infirmary, Director Steel gestured for Ben, Gwen, and Max to sit down.
"We don't know how long it will take or even if we can find a safe way to get that alien device off your wrist, Benjamin. Until then, you will be a target for Vilgax. We have to train you to be prepared for a fight. And, if you want, I also think you can make good use of this watch as a S.E.C.T. agent." A huge smile crossed Ben's lips.
"WHAT?" Max and Gwen shouted at the same time, clearly not liking the idea.
"Devin, you can't be seriously thinking about . . . " Grandpa began to say.
"Please don't use my real name, Max." Director Steel said, "And of course I'm serious. You started training me to become an agent when I was even younger than Benjamin."
"You didn't want to be an agent, and I didn't want to have to train you! You wanted to have a normal life. Do you remember?" Max questioned, "The Director at the time forced you to enlist in S.E.C.T... "
"I was a fool when I was a teenager. You know that later I saw the importance of my work. But, of course, I remember, for that very reason Benjamin will have the right to make a choice. If he wants, he will have only the basic training to take care of himself in case of any emergency, and will live a normal life without using the watch. But if he's willing, he'll have the full training as a S.E.C.T. agent, and he will be enlisted for missions with us."
Keep living a normal and boring life, or becoming a hero, saving people and kicking butt? It was a very easy choice for the sixteen year old.
"Of course I accept your offer, when do we start?!"
TO BE CONTINUED
My special thanks to bearhow and Aurora Nightstar who helped me a lot with this chapter!
Director Steel in my story is a composite character between Director Steel from Original Series and Devin Levin from Ultimate Alien Force.
Also, thanks to all reviewers! I've replied to the registered reviewers over PMs, and answering to the guest person, the story is T for now, but if I think the story is getting too dark, the rating may go up later.
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