Chapter 11: The Forbidden Temple (To Ben, At Least)

I got the idea for the underground city when I visited Krakow, Poland. The outside ring was called "new" Krakow, with modern buildings and streets and cars. But downtown was "old" Krakow, where the buildings were old and decrepit. The streets were cobble stoned and no cars could get in due to all the people. It was great inspiration.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Ben 10 franchise or the song "Prodigal" by OneRepublic.

"Where the hell is Evan?" Sam asked impatiently. They were waiting in front of the giant portrait of Isaac and Cordelia, and Evan was taking far too long with Ben's homework. Carter and Newt were pretending to air-guitar to Linkin Park on Carter's iPod, and Ben was examining the portrait; or, more exactly, Cordelia's face. From one angle the beautiful lady looked angelic when she was smiling, but at a darker angle, the smile became demonic. Ben could swear he saw fanged teeth.

They heard his pounding feet before they saw him. "Your stuff's in Carter's room," Evan huffed to Ben as he finally caught up to his friends. Carter quickly put away her iPod and went over to the right side of the portrait.

"What are you doing?" Ben asked like the complete newb he was.

"The entrance is behind here," Carter answered quickly as she dragged back the portrait ever so slightly. She was right; a mahogany door was behind it.

Evan pushed Ben towards it. "Newbs first!" he said cheerfully. Ben slid next to the wall and opened the door. He only saw darkness, but before he could search for a light, Evan pushed him through. Then the others clamored in with Carter bringing up the rear, making sure the massive portrait was alright before closing the door.

Ben was surrounded by complete darkness. He knew his friends were right next to him, but he couldn't see them. He couldn't even see his hand when he waved it in front of his own face! Then he felt something from behind him.

"Is someone touching me? I swear, someone is touching me." Ben would have hoped it was Carter, but that would have been weird. He didn't feel anything, even when the lights flickered on. It must have been his imagination. The light revealed a network of seemingly-endless tunnels that looked identical to one another.

"Just go straight," Sam said, pointing to the tunnel in front of them. "We'll direct you to the city." Before Ben could ask her what happened in the dark, she pushed him towards the tunnel. He got the hint. He didn't notice how the others looked at one another quizzically over what Ben was talking about earlier. They first assumed Carter was the one touching Ben in the dark, but she had been in the back. No one else would have done it, so it must have been Ben's imagination. They were in an underground tunnel, after all.

After about a good ten minutes of walking straight, they finally reached a set of great oak doors that were bigger than Ben's house. Metal bars crisscrossed over it, making the entrance heavily fortified. Newt stepped in front of them all. His eyes glowed honey gold and he opened his mouth.

"We say good-bye
I turn my back
Run away, run away
So predictable
Not far from here
You see me crack
Like a bone, like a bone
I'm so breakable "

Ben's eyes widened to the size of quarters. Newt's voice was even better than Carter's, if that was possible. It was warm and smooth, like Frank Sinatra, or maybe Elvis Presley, only the voice was lighter. Ben remembered what Cordelia had said when he first met her: "Isaac is the carrier for Lyrica, god of the arts."

Obviously, Newt was the vessel of the art god. Which meant that Carter must have inherited some of Lyrica's power. Go figure.

The doors began to open, the steel bars receding into the walls. The noise was loud, so Ben had to shout to be heard. "Is that the password?" Carter shook her head.

"The door is voice activated," she shouted back. "A random song is preferred, though."

The doors began to open, and Ben had to close his eyes to not get blinded by the light. When he opened them, he saw an underground city.

It was beautiful: Ancient Roman-styled buildings made out of stone and brick, creating a haphazard map of twisting alleys and stores and homes. The ceiling had rainbow stalagmites on the ceiling, giving the city natural lighting of the colorful variety. The architecture looked old and somewhat worn, so it was weird that the people milling about were wearing normal street clothes. From the vantage point, Ben could see a market with hawkers crowing their wares; what appeared to be a school, though it was empty; to his left a large, shiny aqueduct giving the city its water; and to the right… Ben gasped.

"You guys stole the Coliseum!"

"Wrong!" Carter said while laughing. "This one looks too new and intact to be the Coliseum in Rome. But it's an easy mistake to make." Ben took a second glance at it and decided she was right; it was too polished to be the one in Rome.

"Come on!" Evan ran past him to the path down the hill. "We don't have all day!" The others were running down the path.

Carter grabbed Ben's arm. "Come on, already!" Her smile was infectious. Right now, it didn't matter to Ben what happened in his past. He would find out in due time.

"So you're saying that there are other cities like this?" Ben asked Newt. They were all outside an outlet clothing store in the downtown area of the city. The downtown looked much older than the surrounding area, which had clean Roman buildings that looked brand new. The downtown looked more rundown and old, with crumbly and burnt looking buildings. It was a stark contrast to the modernity of the outer ring.

Newt nodded. "It's a network of interrelated cities all throughout the world. You can travel by train- which is super fast, by the way-, by teleportation, or by using subspace."

"What is subspace?"

"It's faster-than-light transmit. You can find it in Star Trek."

Ben looked inside the store, where Evan, Sam, and Carter were browsing. "What's taking them so long?" Ben asked anxiously.

"I think Evan ordered a shirt here. He must be buying it right now." Sure enough, the three of them appeared, Evan holding a black plastic bag in his hand.

"What did you buy?" Newt asked. Evan got it out. It was a red shirt with the words, "Beam me up, Scotty! There's no intelligent life down here", in large graphics. Newt gaped at it. "Don't worry, man. I bought you one." Evan grinned. Newt gave a squeal- a freaking squeal- and high-fived his best friend.

"Nerds," Carter said affectionately, while Sam just snickered. Ben shifted his feet awkwardly. He shouldn't be witnessing this, this close group of friends. He felt like an intruder.

"Well, come on!" Carter grabbed Ben's arm. "We have a city to see!"

"Woo!" Evan whooped as he jumped off the steps onto the cobblestoned road.

"Let's go, go!" Sam cried as she pulled Newt to hurry him up. Ben followed Carter's lead and went after her, a huge smile on his face.

"You have bathhouses?" Ben asked as they neared a giant Roman building with large white pillars supporting it. For whatever reason, he could hear screams of joy and laughter and water whooshing, like there was a water park in there.

"That's right. You haven't lived until you had a Roman bath," Newt said dreamily, like he was imagining being in there.

Sam pointed down the road. "Over there's the biggest karaoke joint here." They kept pointing out different attractions as they continued walking.

"Over there's the armory. It used to be a part of the Defense Wall, but it kept getting trashed in the war games, so they moved it here." Carter.

"The Defense Wall's on the left of the city, far away from the Coliseum." Newt.

"We're close to the red light district. I have a cousin who got knifed there." Sam.

"What was your cousin doing over there?" Evan asked. Sam shrugged. They all started to the right, near the college campus. It was beautiful, with plants and trees and little stores and restaurants. The buildings looked old and worn like the rest of the city, but they were painted a gold color.

"You have a college down here?" Ben asked daftly.

"Some people can't go out into the outside world, so they go to underground schools here," Newt answered. "Besides, it's easier to learn Slayer skills without humans around."

"We can't go in here without a chaperone," Evan said glumly, "so we have to move on." Ben took one last look at the college students walking about. It was so weird to see normal-looking people just going about their daily lives underneath Bellwood. As they walked away, he asked, "Why can't we get in?"

"We're under eighteen," Sam said, as if that explained everything.

"We've got one more place for you to see," Newt said. "Come on, we don't have all day."

"Oh my god," Ben whispered to himself. He was in the middle of an enormous plaza filled with temples. There were thousands of them, all ranging from small to large. There was one for the lord of the dead, all black with skulls and diamonds on the roof with a giant skull hanging on the door. There was another for the fortune goddess, a small gray temple, since luck could be either good or bad. Lyrica's temple was gold with music notes on the walls and a mosaic of colors on the roof. Kirche's temple was blood red and surrounded by a multi-colored fire. Erda's was green, with grass and flowers and animals frolicking through the garden outside of it. Aquaria's was the color of the sea, with water markings and seashells in the walls. All were Roman style architecture and all were placed in a giant circle.

"Ben." Carter steered him to the left, where a large blue temple was. There was a domed skylight replacing the roof, and lightning bolts surrounded the building and changed color from yellow to blue to red to purple. This was the temple for Ventus, he was sure of it.

Ben began to go up to it, but Evan grabbed his shoulder. "You can't just yet."

"Why not?" Ben demanded.

"Phineas hasn't claimed you yet. You can't go in there without his consent." Evan shrugged his shoulders, like it was no big deal. But it was a big deal, at least to Ben. According to the Slayers, this was technically his birthright. How was Ben not allowed to go in there?

"Until you start training with Phineas, you can't really do anything," Carter explained further. Ben looked back at the supposedly forbidden temple and started for it again. Carter tried to stop him, but Evan gently grabbed her arm and pulled her back. He shook his head and they all watched as Ben slammed into an invisible force field.

Ben rubbed his sore nose as he prodded the space in front of him. Yep, definitely a force field. At least it didn't electrocute him. He could hear the others walk up to him. He was about to say that they were right when they all walked right past him.

"Oh, that is so unfair!" Ben whined as the others stopped just short of the stone steps leading up to the temple.

"Sorry, man. Anyone can access the temples to worship, but only Phineas can let you in," Newt said.

"So until I meet Phineas, I can't get into any of them?" Ben gestured to the buildings surrounding them.

"At least it gives you something to aim for," Carter said cheerfully as she walked back to Ben.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked rather meanly. She stopped smiling.

"I'm not. But if I don't act like it, the rest of them will be sad," she said softly. "We have to head back," Carter said out loud. Newt grimaced.

"So this is good bye?" Ben asked Newt back in Carter's room. The sun was beginning to set, and Newt had to get back to Washington.

"For now," he said as he gave Ben a hug. He then did the same thing to all his friends, right before picking up his suitcase. Carter got out her subspace card- Sam had finally remembered to return it- and swiped it down. The green door appeared and Newt grabbed his cousin's hand.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" Carter said to Ben right before stepping through the door first. The door closed after them, and it disappeared.

"So that's how it works," Ben said out loud.

"Yeah. A shame a subspace card is so expensive," Evan said sadly. Ben looked at him.

"But you're loaded!"

"Dude, we were trained by Cordelia not to take things for granted," Sam retorted. "Just because we're rich doesn't mean we don't know the value of a dollar."

"How can you train someone not to take money for granted?"

Sam shuddered. "You don't want to know, trust me."

"Anyway, I gotta go." Ben grabbed his backpack from the couch and headed out the bedroom door.

"Dude, just use the balcony," Evan said, gesturing to the large window.

"She has a balcony?" Ben stalked over to it and threw it open to see that, yes, Carter had a balcony. Ben sighed as he turned into Jetray.

"See you tomorrow at school!" Evan called at Ben as he flew away.

Evan turned back to Sam. "What so we do now?"

Sam smiled sheepishly. "Kamehameha?" she asked.

Evan grinned. "Kamehameha."

Ken Tennyson was riding high. He had just left Daytona Beach after a few days of partying with his college buddies, and he got quite a few numbers from some hotties over there. Yeah, he was happy.

He was supposed to be back in Bellwood in a couple of days. He was stoked to see his family after so long. Just because Ken was a college student didn't mean he forgot his family.

He was in Santa Mira when his car broke down. Luckily it wasn't night just yet; the sky was beginning to go from blue to a reddish color. He was able to find a garage to park and fix his car for the time being. The guys working there were a little…odd, but they were nice enough. And if they could fix Ken's car in a few short days, then fine by Ken.

Once outside the parking garage, Ken fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed home. All he got was a voicemail; they must have been out. He quickly told them his whereabouts and that he might be a few days late due to car trouble. He didn't notice one of the repair guys sneaking up behind him until his call had ended.

"Ahhhh!" Ken cried, startled. The repair guy just smiled.

"I'm sorry about startling you. I didn't want to disturb your call."

Ken's heart slowed to its rate. "It's fine. Is there a problem?"

"Yes, with your car." The repair man gestured into the garage. "There's something we need to clarify before we continue." Ken, puzzled about what they were talking about, followed.

The parking garage was dim, with the only light coming from the windows. "Why is it-" Ken began to ask when the other repair guy hit him with a metal bat. Ken slumped to the floor, unconscious. The two repair men hoisted his body from the floor and carried him to a truck, where Ken's body was thrown carelessly into the back of. The two repair men quickly went to the front of the truck and started the engine.

About two days later

That night, it rained. A lone man in a gray trench coat and an old-fashioned hat was outside a coffee shop. When he walked in, he noticed that it was empty save for the elderly waitress. The waitress instantly went up to him as he took his seat. "Want to hear about the special?" she offered.

"Just coffee," said the man.

Trying to make conversation, the waitress said, "Don't get too many strangers here," as she made the customer's coffee. "What brings you to Santa Mira?"

"Great fishing, great weather," the customer said blithely. That made the waitress turn back to look at him.

"Our fish are all farm-raised," she said, "and this is the rainy season."

Max Tennyson took his hat off and smiled. "I was misinformed." The waitress set down a dish with a silver cover on it.

"Here's your special." Max looked at her, confused.

"I didn't order a special."

The waitress began to take off the cover. "It's on the house," she said with a pleasant smile.

She took off the cover and out popped a Xenocyte, or a DNAlien leech. It hissed and launched itself at Max, who quickly elbowed it onto the ground. As it rolled away, the waitress tried to strangle Max from behind. Max elbowed her, but she just smiled evilly. Max returned said smile. "Your one strong lady… or are you?" He grabbed her face and pulled off the mask hiding her true DNAlien form.

Kicking off from the table, Max sent the DNAlien to the floor with his back. Max rolled away, gasping for air. He saw the Xenocyte crawl quickly towards him. He got up slightly and grabbed the metal coffee pot from the counter. As the Xenocyte got closer, Max slammed the pot onto its head, effectively killing it.

Max stood up, and as lightning flashed across the rainy sky, he said, "I said, just coffee."

Later that day

"Uh, no. Or let me put it another way, no!" Kevin yelled at Ben as he dried the front of his car with a rag. They were outside a car wash in Bellwood, not too far from Santa Mira.

"Come on, Kev, he's my cousin!" Ben said, trying to get Kevin to change his mind. "He was supposed to be home from college two days ago."

"And you want me to waste my time and my car looking for your cousin?"

"I know it sounds bad," Ben started, "but the police said to wait. I'm sure he's fine, we just don't know where he is."

"Daytona Beach or Fort Lauderdale; he's a college student."

"No," Ben pleaded. "He called from the road and said his car broke down in some town called Santa Mira. We haven't heard anything since. His parents are worried."

"And I'm supposed to care why?"

"Because he's my brother," Gwen answered for Ben. Kevin stopped wiping his car down and looked at her sad, scared face. Kevin was pretty weak against a face like that.

"Get in."

"So you want us to destroy an egg hatchery?" Evan asked in Isaac's study.

"Yes. If these Xenocytes are shipped all over the country, the DNAlien population would grow enormously, thus nearly solidifying the High Breeds chance at total domination," Isaac said grimly.

"That's a nice thought," Carter said sarcastically.

"The hearse will take you to Santa Mira. This is an official search and destroy mission. If any DNAliens get in your way, kill them."

"What? Your brother's name is Ken? Gwen and Ken Tennyson? What's your folks' name, Fen and Jen? I'm talking to you, Ben."

"Yes, our names rhyme," Ben grumbled as Kevin finished laughing.

"I'm just having some fun. I don't see what the big deal is," Kevin said, trying to make up for his behavior.

Gwen smiled as she remembered her brother. "Ken took Ben to his first soccer game. When his band played, he snuck me and my friends backstage. Ken's the coolest guy in the world." By then the car had passed the welcoming sign into Santa Mira.

"For such a cool guy, he sure picked a lame place to spend spring break," Kevin remarked as they drove into town.

"Ken is totally cool," Gwen protested as they passed the coffee shop. "He didn't pick where the Awesome-mobile broke down."

Kevin started laughing again. "The Awesome-mobile?"

"His car," Ben explained. "I told you, he's cool."

"Oh, yeah, who could doubt it?"

"We should hit the garages in town," Ben said. "Find Ken's car, find Ken."

"Good idea," Kevin noted. "I mean, how many garaged can this hole support?"

"Five. Five garages. One horse town and five garages." Kevin was in shock, while Gwen was shivering in the rain. It was safe to say that Kevin wasn't making things better.

"Five garages so far," Ben reminded him as he looked through the window into the garage. "And if the Awesome-mobile isn't in this one-bingo!"

"You found a bingo game?" Kevin asked as he pushed Ben aside.

"I found his car," Ben said as Kevin took a good look at Ken's poor excuse of a car, which at this point was being held together solely by duct tape.

"That's the Awesome-mobile?" Kevin couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice. "That thing makes the Rust Bucket look like a Ferrari." Kevin began walking towards the door. The Tennyson cousins were still looking through the window.

"They've already locked up for the night," Gwen said.

That was when Kevin ran up to the door and knocked it off its hinges. "If Ken's so cool, he'll be happy to pay for that." The cousins walked past him to the car, opening it and searching through its contents. "Ah, dirty laundry for mom to wash," Kevin joked. "This guy really is a class act."

Gwen searched through it, saying, as if to herself, "There must be a clue in here to help us find Ken."

"What, like maybe he left a note?" Kevin asked Ben as he looked through Ken's textbooks. Kevin opened the engine and said, "Whoa."

"What is it?" Ben asked as he and Gwen hurried to Kevin's side.

"The only thing not covered in rust." Kevin detached the pink and black object from the engine and held it up. "Its alien tech. Projects a field that dampens internal combustion."

"His car was sabotaged," Gwen said in horror. "Why? Ken's-"

"Too cool?" Kevin asked.

"Too normal," Ben corrected. "He doesn't know anything about the aliens. Why would they go after him?"

"Wonder when they did this?" Kevin turned back to the engine. "It's connected directly into-" he stopped when his hand fell into yellow goo.

"Eww, gross!" Gwen shrieked in disgust. Kevin held up his goo-covered hand. "What is this?" he asked as the Omnitrix started beeping and lighting up. Ben held it to Kevin.

"I don't know, but the Omnitrix doesn't like it."

"What is going on here?" Gwen asked.

"Wouldn't mind knowing that myself," said a voice from behind. The three of them turned to see two guys walking into the open doorway. One was holding a white, box-like container. Both of them were smiling creepily.

The guy without the box asked, "What are you doing in my garage?" The guy with the box set it down gently, and the two of them walked up to Ben and his team.

"You reckon I should call the sheriff?" one of them said a little too happily.

"Yeah, you do that," Ben said, crossing his arms. "I bet he'll be real interested to find out what happened to the kid who owns this car." That wiped the smile of the two guys' faces.

"What do you mean?" one of them said. His voice was fairly husky, while the other's was high-pitched.

"He dropped off the car," Husky continued, placing the creepy smile back on his face. "We fixed it, he didn't come back." Kevin walked over to the driver's seat of the Awesome-mobile and tried turning on the engine. It didn't start up.

"You fixed it, huh?" Kevin glared at Husky and Pitch.

"We was aiming to fix it," Pitch started as Gwen walked over to the white box, "but things got busy around here." Gwen opened the box to discover yellow goop in it. Ben walked over to her and saw the contents.

"Okay, that's it. What is that stuff?" he pointed to it as he glared at the workers.

Lightning flashed, revealing a hazy hologram of two DNAliens. "Check it out," Kevin joked. "It's the DNA hillbillies." Knowing their cover was blown, husky threw up a wad of yellow goop from his mouth and sent Gwen flying. He turned around and did the same thing to Kevin, gluing him to the window. He then turned back to Ben, who was trying to work the Omnitrix. Husky threw up another wad, throwing Ben against the wall. Husky and Pitch threw of their masks and revealed their true DNAlien form.

They began walking towards Ben, but he was able to get his arm free and slam a hand on the Omnitrix. Turning into Humungousaur, he effectively scared the DNAliens to at least back up. Gwen used her powers to get out of the goop she was in and she sent an energy blast to own of them, blasting them away and unconscious. Ben roared at the other one, forcing it to flee out the door. Unfortunately for him, Kevin was standing there, all decked out in armor. The DNAlien slammed into him, knocking him out.

"That's a work related accident," Kevin pointed out. "You can sue."

As Kevin took off his metal armor, he looked at the Tennyson cousins. "What do we do now?"

They were outside the coffee shop where Max was earlier, all in human form. "I thought if we retraced his steps, we'd find a clue, but there's nothing here," Gwen said as she shivered in the rain. As if on cue, they all heard a sound coming from a giant red truck from the right of them.

"I wouldn't say nothing," Ben said as the noise started up again.

They all walked towards it as quietly as they could. Ben opened the back of the truck and saw a DNAlien bound by the hands with energy cuffs and a red shirt in his mouth hole. The DNAlien turned to look at them, knocking over a white box of disgusting yellow slime.

Kevin viciously grabbed the red cloth from its mouth. "Okay, start talking!" he ordered as the Omnitrix started beeping again. "What is up with you?" Ben asked it, as if it had a mouth and could answer his question. Ben waved the Omnitrix over the slime and it said, in a robotic male voice, "Unknown DNA sample acquired."

"That's new," Ben said out loud.

"Ben, you want to look at this," Gwen said, alarm evident in her voice. In her hands was a piece of a red shirt with dorky Hawaiian flowers on it. Ben knew that shirt anywhere.

"What is it?" Kevin asked.

"It's Grandpa Max!" Gwen said. She glared at the DNAlien. "Tell us who tied you up. NOW!"

"M-Max Tennyson!" The DNAlien finally said. "He wanted to find some kid!"

"Where is he?" Ben demanded.

"I don't know. He cuffed me and left me here," the DNAlien said truthfully.

"Not him!" Gwen yelled. "He can take care of himself! Where's the kid? Where is my brother?"

The DNAlien cowered under her gaze and stammered, "A-At the hatchery."

So...many...line breaks...

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